Junction City Commissioners have approved a one-time pay stipend for city employees. Commissioner Nate Butler's motion for the bonus included $500 for fulltime employees and $250 for part-time employees on the payroll as of Tuesday.

The funding is a COVID-19 appreciation stipend for their efforts during the pandemic.

Junction City Commissioners have approved a one-time pay stipend for city employees. Commissioner Nate Butler's motion for the bonus included $500 for fulltime employees and $250 for part-time employees on the payroll as of Tuesday.The funding is a COVID-19 appreciation stipend for their efforts during the pandemic.

Junction City employees get a bonus

Geary USD 475 Board of Education members voted Tuesday night to accept a letter of resignation from Board member Sarah Talley. She and her husband Ken are moving to Hesston, KS.

Talley told JC Post that she and her husband have been making preparations for some time for any issues that may develop in the future in connection with Parkinson's disease experienced by Ken. "One of those things was to look at finding a home that was all on one level." Talley added that they also found that there were other opportunities and resources to make life better for him.&nbsp; "Parkinson's, not a fun disease and it's not something that you really know what's going to happen from day to day but we've been blessed. Kenny's doing well and we want to enjoy the time that we have."

"We actually put our home on the market thinking it would take awhile before it would be purchased and it went very very quickly and the individuals that made the purchase wanted to be in by Sept. 10, and so we were on a very fast time frame." They will reside in a retirement community in Hesston, not far from family members in Wichita.

Talley has served on the school board in USD 475 for nearly four years. Her term was due to expire in December.&nbsp; She has also served as a principal at Lincoln Elementary School and for the Early Childhood Center, and as the Head Start Director and Human Resources Director for the district. "I enjoyed my time on the Board. It was a learning experience." Talley added that she felt that the Board in the last four years had faced a lot of issues that probably many board members who had served for a much longer time never had to face. I feel like we stepped up and we made decisions, and they worked hard."

Sara explained that there were no concerns or issues for her in Junction City. The move was just due to the way the housing situation developed.

The school board has decided to leave the position on the BOE vacant until January after the November elections.&nbsp;

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1631067256534.jpeg" alt="Sarah Talley - Photo USD 475" />
 <figcaption>Sarah Talley - Photo USD 475</figcaption>
 </figure>Geary USD 475 Board of Education members voted Tuesday night to accept a letter of resignation from Board member Sarah Talley. She and her husband Ken are moving to Hesston, KS.Talley told JC Post that she and her husband have been making preparations for some time for any issues that may develop in the future in connection with Parkinson's disease experienced by Ken. "One of those things was to look at finding a home that was all on one level." Talley added that they also found that there were other opportunities and resources to make life better for him.&nbsp; "Parkinson's, not a fun disease and it's not something that you really know what's going to happen from day to day but we've been blessed. Kenny's doing well and we want to enjoy the time that we have.""We actually put our home on the market thinking it would take awhile before it would be purchased and it went very very quickly and the individuals that made the purchase wanted to be in by Sept. 10, and so we were on a very fast time frame." They will reside in a retirement community in Hesston, not far from family members in Wichita.Talley has served on the school board in USD 475 for nearly four years. Her term was due to expire in December.&nbsp; She has also served as a principal at Lincoln Elementary School and for the Early Childhood Center, and as the Head Start Director and Human Resources Director for the district. "I enjoyed my time on the Board. It was a learning experience." Talley added that she felt that the Board in the last four years had faced a lot of issues that probably many board members who had served for a much longer time never had to face. I feel like we stepped up and we made decisions, and they worked hard."Sara explained that there were no concerns or issues for her in Junction City. The move was just due to the way the housing situation developed.The school board has decided to leave the position on the BOE vacant until January after the November elections.&nbsp;

Sarah Talley steps down from USD 475 Board of Education

Geary USD 475 school board members voted Tuesday evening to allow talks to resume with the city on possible acquisition of the old Junction City High School property. The new JCHS opened in late August.

In June the city maintained an earlier $1 offer for the old high school site. They wanted the site at 900 N. Eisenhower Drive to be demolished and cleared before the City assumed maintenance of the property. 

There was an earlier counteroffer from the school district with multiple options ranging from&nbsp; USD 475 retaining 17 acres at the current site for construction of a new elementary school in the future to swapping the former high school site for 17 acres in the land bank for a future elementary school, or for an increase in the offer to include fair market value for the land, tennis courts and football field. No final action was taken.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1631061617900.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Geary USD 475 school board members voted Tuesday evening to allow talks to resume with the city on possible acquisition of the old Junction City High School property. The new JCHS opened in late August.In June the city maintained an earlier $1 offer for the old high school site. They wanted the site at 900 N. Eisenhower Drive to be demolished and cleared before the City assumed maintenance of the property. There was an earlier counteroffer from the school district with multiple options ranging from&nbsp; USD 475 retaining 17 acres at the current site for construction of a new elementary school in the future to swapping the former high school site for 17 acres in the land bank for a future elementary school, or for an increase in the offer to include fair market value for the land, tennis courts and football field. No final action was taken.

BOE authorizes resumption of talks with the City on the old JCHS

There was a glitch in the process to seek a new Geary County Convention &amp; Visitor's Bureau director. To correct it, an interview will be granted to another candidate whose application was lost. That was the end result of a lengthy discussion involving CVB Advisory Committee members, the HR Director Crystal Malchose and the county commission Tuesday morning.&nbsp;

Malchose issued her recommendation. "There was a glitch. She is qualified on paper so I think that since the other person has not accepted the offer that was made that we should extend this person an interview." The commission and Malchose will conduct the interview.&nbsp;

Malchose noted that a job offer was made to a candidate who then made a counteroffer. The County had not yet responded to the counteroffer. 

There was a glitch in the process to seek a new Geary County Convention &amp; Visitor's Bureau director. To correct it, an interview will be granted to another candidate whose application was lost. That was the end result of a lengthy discussion involving CVB Advisory Committee members, the HR Director Crystal Malchose and the county commission Tuesday morning.&nbsp;Malchose issued her recommendation. "There was a glitch. She is qualified on paper so I think that since the other person has not accepted the offer that was made that we should extend this person an interview." The commission and Malchose will conduct the interview.&nbsp;Malchose noted that a job offer was made to a candidate who then made a counteroffer. The County had not yet responded to the counteroffer. The job remains open at this time.

County will grant CVB Director applicant an interview 

GEARY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a case of alleged domestic have made an arrest.

On Tuesday, the The Geary County sheriff's office reported they were attempting to locate 35-year-old David Paul Jones.

Prior to his arrest, deputies said Jones was seen in the area of the Otter Creek Bridge on Lyons Creek Road.

Jones was wanted in Dickinson County for Domestic Battery and ran from local law enforcement when located in Geary County and is being held in Geary County, according online jail records.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1631035020562.png" alt="Jones photo&nbsp; from an earlier arrest in Dickinson Co." />
 <figcaption>Jones photo&nbsp; from an earlier arrest in Dickinson Co.</figcaption>
 </figure>GEARY COUNTY—Law enforcement authorities investigating a case of alleged domestic have made an arrest.On Tuesday, the The Geary County sheriff's office reported they were attempting to locate 35-year-old David Paul Jones.Prior to his arrest, deputies said Jones was seen in the area of the Otter Creek Bridge on Lyons Creek Road.Jones was wanted in Dickinson County for Domestic Battery and ran from local law enforcement when located in Geary County and is being held in Geary County, according online jail records.

Man accused of domestic battery arrested in Geary Co.

RILEY COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an alleged theft in Manhattan.

Just after 2:30p.m. Sunday, officers filed a report for theft, interference with LEO, use/possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia, display/possession fictitious/revoked/suspended driver's license, possession of stolen property, possession of opiate, opium, narcotic or certain stimulant, making false information, attempted identity theft, unlawful to possess took to remove theft detection device and distribution of opiate, opium, narcotic, certain stimulant in the 300 block of Tuttle Creek Blvd in Manhattan, according to the Riley County Police Department activity report.

Best Buy and a 44-year-old woman reported a 37-year-old female suspect stole a Lenovo computer, two pairs of Samsung earbuds and a Bang and Olsen Beoplay Portal headphones. 

The suspect was also found to be in possession of multiple pairs of stole sunglasses, drugs and drug paraphernalia, and fake identification. The estimated total loss associated with this case is approximately $1,258.

RILEY COUNTY —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an alleged theft in Manhattan.Just after 2:30p.m. Sunday, officers filed a report for theft, interference with LEO, use/possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia, display/possession fictitious/revoked/suspended driver's license, possession of stolen property, possession of opiate, opium, narcotic or certain stimulant, making false information, attempted identity theft, unlawful to possess took to remove theft detection device and distribution of opiate, opium, narcotic, certain stimulant in the 300 block of Tuttle Creek Blvd in Manhattan, according to the Riley County Police Department activity report.Best Buy and a 44-year-old woman reported a 37-year-old female suspect stole a Lenovo computer, two pairs of Samsung earbuds and a Bang and Olsen Beoplay Portal headphones. The suspect was also found to be in possession of multiple pairs of stole sunglasses, drugs and drug paraphernalia, and fake identification. The estimated total loss associated with this case is approximately $1,258.

RCPD investigating alleged ID theft

MANHATTAN —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an alleged scam in Manhattan.

Just before 1:30p.m. Monday, officers filed a report for theft in the 1900 block of Casement Road. in Manhattan.

A 62-year-old man reported an unknown suspect stole $5,950 in miscellaneous gift cards from him through an internet scam. 

Anyone with information can contact RCPD or the Manhattan Riley County Crime Stoppers. Using the Crime Stoppers service can allow you to remain anonymous and could qualify you for a cash reward of up to $1,000.

MANHATTAN —Law enforcement authorities are investigating an alleged scam in Manhattan.Just before 1:30p.m. Monday, officers filed a report for theft in the 1900 block of Casement Road. in Manhattan.A 62-year-old man reported an unknown suspect stole $5,950 in miscellaneous gift cards from him through an internet scam. Anyone with information can contact RCPD or the Manhattan Riley County Crime Stoppers. Using the Crime Stoppers service can allow you to remain anonymous and could qualify you for a cash reward of up to $1,000.

Manhattan man lost $5,900 in alleged gift card scam

MANHATTAN—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary that included over a dozen guns from a home in Manhattan.

Just after 7:30p.m. Sunday, officers filed a report for burglary in the 900 block of De Hoff Drive in Manhattan.

A 42-year-old man reported an unknown suspect entered his unoccupied house and stole a black AK47 rifle, a Bear Creek Arsenal rifle, two Palmetto State Armory rifles, a Bravo Company USA rifle, a Stagg Arms AR rifle, an AKV PSA rifle, a Tavor IWI rifle, a Keltec Bullpup rifle, a CZ Scorpion rifle, a Patrol AR10 rifle, a 20 gauge shotgun, an EOTech 512 sight, Vortex and Bushnell red dot sights, Seymour, Trijicon and Primary scopes, Glock 17 and 19 handguns, and Walter PP22 and PPK handguns. 

The estimated total loss associated with this case is approximately $15,250. 

MANHATTAN—Law enforcement authorities are investigating a burglary that included over a dozen guns from a home in Manhattan.Just after 7:30p.m. Sunday, officers filed a report for burglary in the 900 block of De Hoff Drive in Manhattan.A 42-year-old man reported an unknown suspect entered his unoccupied house and stole a black AK47 rifle, a Bear Creek Arsenal rifle, two Palmetto State Armory rifles, a Bravo Company USA rifle, a Stagg Arms AR rifle, an AKV PSA rifle, a Tavor IWI rifle, a Keltec Bullpup rifle, a CZ Scorpion rifle, a Patrol AR10 rifle, a 20 gauge shotgun, an EOTech 512 sight, Vortex and Bushnell red dot sights, Seymour, Trijicon and Primary scopes, Glock 17 and 19 handguns, and Walter PP22 and PPK handguns. The estimated total loss associated with this case is approximately $15,250. Anyone with information can contact RCPD or the Manhattan Riley County Crime Stoppers. Using the Crime Stoppers service can allow you to remain anonymous and could qualify you for a cash reward of up to $1,000.

RCPD: Over a dozen guns taken from Manhattan home

MANHATTAN—A Manhattan man was injured in an accident just after 6:30p.m. Sunday in Manhattan.

According to the Riley County Police Department activity reported a 1996 Harley Davidson motorcycle driven by Raphael Byrd, 35, Manhattan, struck a 2004 Olds Alero driven by 18-year-old William Weatherford of Manhattan in the 2200 Block of College Ave. in Manhattan.

EMS transported Byrd to Via Christi for treatment of a broken leg, according to the RCPD.

MANHATTAN—A Manhattan man was injured in an accident just after 6:30p.m. Sunday in Manhattan.According to the Riley County Police Department activity reported a 1996 Harley Davidson motorcycle driven by Raphael Byrd, 35, Manhattan, struck a 2004 Olds Alero driven by 18-year-old William Weatherford of Manhattan in the 2200 Block of College Ave. in Manhattan.EMS transported Byrd to Via Christi for treatment of a broken leg, according to the RCPD.

Manhattan man injured in weekend accident

By NOAH TABORDA and SHELTON BROWN <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/09/06/thousands-of-kansans-face-threat-of-eviction-as-pandemic-exposes-housing-crisis/">Kansas Reflector</a>

TOPEKA — Sheena Mooney has spent the 
past year without a job or a safety net, living in her orange Nissan 
Xterra in a trailer park a few miles from Washburn.

Mooney lost her job at Frito-Lay in 
March 2020, a job she enjoyed, fell behind on her rent and was evicted 
that August. She applied for unemployment but did not qualify, and her 
eviction was subsequently approved between May 26, 2020, when the 
state’s eviction moratorium expired, and Aug. 17, 2020, when <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2020/08/17/gov-laura-kelly-reimposes-temporary-statewide-ban-on-foreclosures-evictions/">Gov. Laura Kelly’s new order went into effect</a>.

“I don’t like telling people my 
business, you know. This was something that needed to be heard,” Mooney 
said. “How did this happen? How was I able to fall through the cracks 
and get no help?”

Mooney is one of the thousands who 
have been evicted or are facing the threat of eviction during the 
pandemic in Kansas. She joined Kansas housing advocates on a new episode
 of the Kansas Reflector podcast to discuss the realities of renting 
amid COVID-19.

Estimates from the Kansas Housing 
Resources Corporation indicate more than 27,000 Kansas are currently 
behind on their rent, and estimates from Zillow show about 14,600 
renters are at risk of eviction.

Federal and state moratoriums have 
provided temporary relief for those who can prove they are unable to pay
 rent because of COVID-19 related circumstances, but the narrow scope 
has left many without protection. Even during the moratorium period, 
evictions proceeded in some areas.

Dave Patel, who comanages the Motel 6
 in Topeka with his wife, said he has seen an influx of people staying 
at his hotel because of lost housing.

Vince Munoz, an organizer for the 
tenant advocacy group Rent Zero Kansas, said without substantive change,
 many more will be removed from their homes with nowhere to turn.

“Even those of us who do have a 
little bit of stability, we’re all just kind of teetering on the edge 
and we really deserve to be in a place as people where we’re not just 
one emergency or social issue away from losing our housing,” Munoz said.

One option available to both renters 
and landlords looking for relief is the Kansas Emergency Rental 
Assistance program. The initiative led by the Kansas Housing Resources 
Corporation is intended to provide rent, utility and internet assistance
 to households experiencing hardship because of the pandemic through a 
joint tenant-landlord application process.

Whether it’s an unwillingness from 
landlords to collaborate or the slow processing pace of applications, 
Munoz said, the program is insufficient. Recent KHRC data shows 6,593 of
 14,607 applicants have been served so far.

<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/08/28/supreme-court-rejection-of-eviction-ban-increases-pressure-to-dole-out-rental-aid-money/">The U.S. Treasury last month</a>
 said just 11% of the $46.5 billion approved by Congress for emergency 
rental assistance had been allocated. Of the $5.1 billion that was 
spent, $1.7 billion was doled out during July.

KHRC executives said they are processing applications in seven to 10 days.

Ryan Vincent, KHRC’s executive 
director, said the organization is seeking feedback to inform a new 
housing initiative, this time for homeowners. The Kansas Homeowner 
Assistance Fund, established by the American Rescue Plan Act, will aim 
to prevent the displacement of homeowners experiencing financial 
hardship associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In less than a year, we’ve provided 
almost $50 million in emergency rental assistance to Kansas renters, 
landlords and service providers,” Vincent said. “We’re proud to have 
helped more than 15,000 Kansas households avoid eviction and remain 
stably housed during the pandemic, but we know our state’s housing needs
 don’t stop with tenants. Kansas homeowners: Help is on the way.”

Noah Taborda started his journalism career in public radio at KBIA in Columbia, Missouri, covering local government and producing an episode of the podcast Show Me The State while earning his bachelor’s degree in radio broadcasting at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.

Shelton Brown is an audio reporter and producer based in Kansas City, Missouri. Originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Shelton has contributed to organizations like The Chattanooga Times Free Press, SIPA USA and Now To Love in Sydney, Australia.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630957751202.png" alt=" Eviction moratoriums provided temporary relief for many Kansans, but some, like Sheena Mooney, found themselves without a home during the pandemic. (Shelton Brown for Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption> Eviction moratoriums provided temporary relief for many Kansans, but some, like Sheena Mooney, found themselves without a home during the pandemic. (Shelton Brown for Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>By NOAH TABORDA and SHELTON BROWN <a href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/09/06/thousands-of-kansans-face-threat-of-eviction-as-pandemic-exposes-housing-crisis/">Kansas Reflector</a>TOPEKA — Sheena Mooney has spent the 
past year without a job or a safety net, living in her orange Nissan 
Xterra in a trailer park a few miles from Washburn.Mooney lost her job at Frito-Lay in 
March 2020, a job she enjoyed, fell behind on her rent and was evicted 
that August. She applied for unemployment but did not qualify, and her 
eviction was subsequently approved between May 26, 2020, when the 
state’s eviction moratorium expired, and Aug. 17, 2020, when <a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2020/08/17/gov-laura-kelly-reimposes-temporary-statewide-ban-on-foreclosures-evictions/">Gov. Laura Kelly’s new order went into effect</a>.“I don’t like telling people my 
business, you know. This was something that needed to be heard,” Mooney 
said. “How did this happen? How was I able to fall through the cracks 
and get no help?”Mooney is one of the thousands who 
have been evicted or are facing the threat of eviction during the 
pandemic in Kansas. She joined Kansas housing advocates on a new episode
 of the Kansas Reflector podcast to discuss the realities of renting 
amid COVID-19.<div><iframe width="100%" height="300" scrolling="no" frameborder="no" allow="autoplay" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1119349120&color=%232b7fb4&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true"></iframe><div style="font-size: 10px; color: #cccccc;line-break: anywhere;word-break: normal;overflow: hidden;white-space: nowrap;text-overflow: ellipsis; font-family: Interstate,Lucida Grande,Lucida Sans Unicode,Lucida Sans,Garuda,Verdana,Tahoma,sans-serif;font-weight: 100;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/kansas-reflector-podcast" title="Reflector Podcast" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Reflector Podcast</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/kansas-reflector-podcast/renters-advocates-on-kansas-housing-issues" title="Renters, advocates on Kansas housing issues" target="_blank" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;">Renters, advocates on Kansas housing issues</a></div></div>Estimates from the Kansas Housing 
Resources Corporation indicate more than 27,000 Kansas are currently 
behind on their rent, and estimates from Zillow show about 14,600 
renters are at risk of eviction.Federal and state moratoriums have 
provided temporary relief for those who can prove they are unable to pay
 rent because of COVID-19 related circumstances, but the narrow scope 
has left many without protection. Even during the moratorium period, 
evictions proceeded in some areas.Dave Patel, who comanages the Motel 6
 in Topeka with his wife, said he has seen an influx of people staying 
at his hotel because of lost housing.Vince Munoz, an organizer for the 
tenant advocacy group Rent Zero Kansas, said without substantive change,
 many more will be removed from their homes with nowhere to turn.“Even those of us who do have a 
little bit of stability, we’re all just kind of teetering on the edge 
and we really deserve to be in a place as people where we’re not just 
one emergency or social issue away from losing our housing,” Munoz said.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630957863106.png" alt="Vince Munoz is housing justice organizer with Rent Zero Kansas. He says many renters are searching for stability in uncertain times. (Submitted to Kansas Reflector)" />
 <figcaption>Vince Munoz is housing justice organizer with Rent Zero Kansas. He says many renters are searching for stability in uncertain times. (Submitted to Kansas Reflector)</figcaption>
 </figure>One option available to both renters 
and landlords looking for relief is the Kansas Emergency Rental 
Assistance program. The initiative led by the Kansas Housing Resources 
Corporation is intended to provide rent, utility and internet assistance
 to households experiencing hardship because of the pandemic through a 
joint tenant-landlord application process.Whether it’s an unwillingness from 
landlords to collaborate or the slow processing pace of applications, 
Munoz said, the program is insufficient. Recent KHRC data shows 6,593 of
 14,607 applicants have been served so far.<a target="_blank" href="https://kansasreflector.com/2021/08/28/supreme-court-rejection-of-eviction-ban-increases-pressure-to-dole-out-rental-aid-money/">The U.S. Treasury last month</a>
 said just 11% of the $46.5 billion approved by Congress for emergency 
rental assistance had been allocated. Of the $5.1 billion that was 
spent, $1.7 billion was doled out during July.KHRC executives said they are processing applications in seven to 10 days.Ryan Vincent, KHRC’s executive 
director, said the organization is seeking feedback to inform a new 
housing initiative, this time for homeowners. The Kansas Homeowner 
Assistance Fund, established by the American Rescue Plan Act, will aim 
to prevent the displacement of homeowners experiencing financial 
hardship associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.“In less than a year, we’ve provided 
almost $50 million in emergency rental assistance to Kansas renters, 
landlords and service providers,” Vincent said. “We’re proud to have 
helped more than 15,000 Kansas households avoid eviction and remain 
stably housed during the pandemic, but we know our state’s housing needs
 don’t stop with tenants. Kansas homeowners: Help is on the way.”Noah Taborda started his journalism career in public radio at KBIA in Columbia, Missouri, covering local government and producing an episode of the podcast Show Me The State while earning his bachelor’s degree in radio broadcasting at the University of Missouri School of Journalism.Shelton Brown is an audio reporter and producer based in Kansas City, Missouri. Originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee, Shelton has contributed to organizations like The Chattanooga Times Free Press, SIPA USA and Now To Love in Sydney, Australia.

Thousands of Kansans face eviction as pandemic exposes housing crisis

Geary County Commissioners, Junction City Commissioners and the Geary USD 475 Board of Education will all be in session on Tuesday.

The school board meets at 6:30 p.m. at the Devin Center. Discussion on a district strategic plan, consideration of all classified and administrative salaries for the 2021-2022 school year, and a public hearing and consideration of&nbsp; the 2021-2022 budget are among the agenda items.

County Commissioners are in session from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be a discussion with Public Building Commission members on the emergency operations center and the courthouse at 11 a.m. There will also be discussion on the CVB director's position wth HR Director Crystal Malchose about 11:30 a.m.

Junction City Commissioners meet at 7 p.m. at 701 North Jefferson. They will conduct a public hearing and consider the proposed 2022 city budget.

Geary County Commissioners, Junction City Commissioners and the Geary USD 475 Board of Education will all be in session on Tuesday.The school board meets at 6:30 p.m. at the Devin Center. Discussion on a district strategic plan, consideration of all classified and administrative salaries for the 2021-2022 school year, and a public hearing and consideration of&nbsp; the 2021-2022 budget are among the agenda items.County Commissioners are in session from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be a discussion with Public Building Commission members on the emergency operations center and the courthouse at 11 a.m. There will also be discussion on the CVB director's position wth HR Director Crystal Malchose about 11:30 a.m.Junction City Commissioners meet at 7 p.m. at 701 North Jefferson. They will conduct a public hearing and consider the proposed 2022 city budget.

Busy public meeting slate is set for Tuesday

Chapman celebrated on Labor Day this year.&nbsp;

The celebration was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19 but not this year. The traditional parade drew a big turnout as it wound through the middle of town.&nbsp;

Entries on Monday ranged from fire truck, law enforcement vehicles and tractors to the high school football team and band plus some vintage automobiles.

"Celebrating Hometown Volunteers" was the theme for the parade.

Chapman celebrated on Labor Day this year.&nbsp;The celebration was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19 but not this year. The traditional parade drew a big turnout as it wound through the middle of town.&nbsp;Entries on Monday ranged from fire truck, law enforcement vehicles and tractors to the high school football team and band plus some vintage automobiles.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630964705915.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630964721292.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630964736652.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630964751942.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630964770175.jpeg" alt="Ray and Lynn Kruse served as the parade grand marshalls" />
 <figcaption>Ray and Lynn Kruse served as the parade grand marshalls</figcaption>
 </figure><figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630964806977.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>"Celebrating Hometown Volunteers" was the theme for the parade.

Chapman celebrates Labor Day

Jackie Mundt, Pratt County farmer and rancher As a girl, I dreamed of a future family and farm life in somewhat vague terms. However, one aspect was clear: I would not want to marry a dairy farmer because they never go on vacation. I may have painted dairy farming unfairly. Willingness to travel now seems to me to be less about the kind of farm and more about the individual. Farmers tend to fall into three categories of travel preferences. Homebodies don’t see any reason to leave the county except maybe for a day trip to the state fair or an educational meeting. Interest-based travelers are willing to make a moderate amount of short-term trips to livestock shows, college football games or whatever piques their interest, as long as they can get back quickly if anything goes wrong at home. Adventurers have a desire to see the world and work to make vacations possible. This travel preference would seem to be a learned behavior, but there may be a genetic component. In recent years, researchers have identified a genetic variant called the Wanderlust gene, which effects dopamine levels making a person more risk-tolerant and adventurous. Since farmers deal with risk every day, it would be logical to assume they should all be world travelers. However, it might be the opposite in many cases. Farmers spend their time trying to manage and mitigate risk, they use new genetics to attempt to offset weather risk or market their grain in a way that spreads out the risk of market movement. Their world by nature is full of risk; most do not want to invite more. But I think it would be a mistake to forget the other variable in the equation — reward. Travel has comes with risk but it also offers an important reward: diversity. Diversity has become somewhat politicized over the pasts few years, but at its core it is a simple and vital concept for our ability to grow and learn. In a graduate school, I learned about homophily and heterophily, or the degree to which the person you are communicating with is the same or different from you respectively. These similarities and differences may be factors of physical location, experience, values, language, technical expertise or many other items. We enjoy people we have homophily with because it is easy to be on the same page with them. People who are heterophilious to us are harder to talk to but we learn more from them and often that learning can help us to grow more quickly. For example, if you only work with the same group of people every day you will develop a common language and can work efficiently together. However, when your group is asked to do something different, you may all come up with the same ideas. Having an outsider’s input can give you more ideas or different information to contribute to the conversation. This is why we go to conferences and hire consultants. Diversity is important because different experiences and perspectives can lead to innovation. In rural America, we need that innovation to keep our communities alive and thriving. It is too easy to dismiss diversity, to decide that we don’t want to take unnecessary risks. One of the recent ways that I have chosen to seek out new ideas and perspectives is by participating in the Casten Fellows program, which is a Kansas Farm Bureau leadership program honoring the memory of former staff member Dr. Jill Casten-Downing. Our Casten Fellows cohort recently completed the capstone of this program, a 14-day international experience in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. This was not a vacation; it was an intense educational experience that took us to farms, agribusinesses, cultural sites and historic places with the goal of understanding culture and agriculture in a part of the world. In the coming weeks, I am excited to share more through this column about our time in the Baltics.&nbsp; I hope that the stories of the people, places and culture we experienced will provide new perspectives to spark conversation and innovation in your community. And hopefully it will create a desire for you to seek out your own adventures.

"Insight" is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state's largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.&nbsp;Copyright © 2021 Kansas Farm Bureau, All rights reserved.

Jackie Mundt, Pratt County farmer and rancher As a girl, I dreamed of a future family and farm life in somewhat vague terms. However, one aspect was clear: I would not want to marry a dairy farmer because they never go on vacation. I may have painted dairy farming unfairly. Willingness to travel now seems to me to be less about the kind of farm and more about the individual. Farmers tend to fall into three categories of travel preferences. Homebodies don’t see any reason to leave the county except maybe for a day trip to the state fair or an educational meeting. Interest-based travelers are willing to make a moderate amount of short-term trips to livestock shows, college football games or whatever piques their interest, as long as they can get back quickly if anything goes wrong at home. Adventurers have a desire to see the world and work to make vacations possible. This travel preference would seem to be a learned behavior, but there may be a genetic component. In recent years, researchers have identified a genetic variant called the Wanderlust gene, which effects dopamine levels making a person more risk-tolerant and adventurous. Since farmers deal with risk every day, it would be logical to assume they should all be world travelers. However, it might be the opposite in many cases. Farmers spend their time trying to manage and mitigate risk, they use new genetics to attempt to offset weather risk or market their grain in a way that spreads out the risk of market movement. Their world by nature is full of risk; most do not want to invite more. But I think it would be a mistake to forget the other variable in the equation — reward. Travel has comes with risk but it also offers an important reward: diversity. Diversity has become somewhat politicized over the pasts few years, but at its core it is a simple and vital concept for our ability to grow and learn. In a graduate school, I learned about homophily and heterophily, or the degree to which the person you are communicating with is the same or different from you respectively. These similarities and differences may be factors of physical location, experience, values, language, technical expertise or many other items. We enjoy people we have homophily with because it is easy to be on the same page with them. People who are heterophilious to us are harder to talk to but we learn more from them and often that learning can help us to grow more quickly. For example, if you only work with the same group of people every day you will develop a common language and can work efficiently together. However, when your group is asked to do something different, you may all come up with the same ideas. Having an outsider’s input can give you more ideas or different information to contribute to the conversation. This is why we go to conferences and hire consultants. Diversity is important because different experiences and perspectives can lead to innovation. In rural America, we need that innovation to keep our communities alive and thriving. It is too easy to dismiss diversity, to decide that we don’t want to take unnecessary risks. One of the recent ways that I have chosen to seek out new ideas and perspectives is by participating in the Casten Fellows program, which is a Kansas Farm Bureau leadership program honoring the memory of former staff member Dr. Jill Casten-Downing. Our Casten Fellows cohort recently completed the capstone of this program, a 14-day international experience in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Finland. This was not a vacation; it was an intense educational experience that took us to farms, agribusinesses, cultural sites and historic places with the goal of understanding culture and agriculture in a part of the world. In the coming weeks, I am excited to share more through this column about our time in the Baltics.&nbsp; I hope that the stories of the people, places and culture we experienced will provide new perspectives to spark conversation and innovation in your community. And hopefully it will create a desire for you to seek out your own adventures."Insight" is a weekly column published by Kansas Farm Bureau, the state's largest farm organization whose mission is to strengthen agriculture and the lives of Kansans through advocacy, education and service.&nbsp;Copyright © 2021 Kansas Farm Bureau, All rights reserved.

Rewards of Adventure

LAWRENCE - A team of researchers is sampling ticks throughout Kansas and Oklahoma to understand the risk of tick-borne diseases, which could help medical professionals better diagnose tick-related illnesses.

The team — which includes researchers from the University of Kansas, Pittsburg State University, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and University of Central Oklahoma — is two years into its four-year project.

KU’s team, led by A. Townsend Peterson, University Distinguished Professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior curator at the Biodiversity Institute, samples ticks at five sites across Kansas.

They are detailing pathogen types, documenting infection levels, developing disease maps, and determining the presence of Lyme disease and other pathogens.

<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/datasurveillance/maps-recent.html">The CDC’s official mappings</a>&nbsp;show ticks with the potential to carry Lyme disease are rarely present in Kansas and Oklahoma compared to the northeastern and northern parts of the United States. However, the team’s preliminary research shows ticks that carry Lyme disease are here.

The researchers have collected about 40 ticks active during the fall and winter that have the potential to carry Lyme disease. They’ve also found about 10 other bacterial pathogens in the ticks they’ve sampled. For example, 10-20% of the ticks carry the bacteria that cause ehrlichiosis, an illness that causes fever and muscle aches.

Ultimately, this research will increase understanding of tick populations and the pathogens they harbor in Kansas and Oklahoma.

What methods are you using in your research?

Sampling is laborious. A team of three to six people spends a full day in the field. We sample at two sites in each state every two weeks for two years and at five more sites four times a year. Sites include two counties in eastern Kansas near the Missouri border and another site far to the west, north of Hays. We had to balance sampling at more sites versus sampling with greater detail at a few sites. Everything you do with fieldwork is a tradeoff.

While sampling, one person waves a flannel flag across the vegetation. If ticks are looking for a host or mammal, they'll grab onto the flag. Another person drags a piece of flannel between two poles.

A third way the team samples is by using dry ice traps because ticks find their hosts not just by movement but also by detecting exhaled carbon dioxide. They're strange traps — a square of cardboard with masking tape, sticky side up, around the edges, with a lump of dry ice in the middle. The dry ice sublimates directly from solid to carbon dioxide, resembling how a mammal exhales carbon dioxide. The ticks crawl on the trap and get stuck in the masking tape. This fall, we’ll also add a fourth way of collecting ticks, which is by live trapping small mammals and combing their hair.

These are the ridiculous things biologists do. But we’ve collected about 6,000 ticks so far, and it's going to get us a clear view of which pathogens are being carried by ticks around Kansas and Oklahoma. These are the pathogens that you and your doctors should be aware of, but a lot of the medical personnel are not aware of them.

After sampling, we preserve the collected ticks and ship them to Oklahoma State University, where the team there identifies the tick and sequences its DNA to determine if it carries pathogens.

Why does your study matter to your field and to society?

About 15 years ago, one of my doctoral students traveled to a field site near Lawrence. A day or two later, he came into my office and asked, "Do you know anything about this?" as he pointed to a mark on his leg. He had the classic tick bite and bacterial infection, which looks like the red Target store symbol. I was familiar with it because I had gotten a tick-borne disease previously in the Philippines. I told him he needed to go in for diagnostics. And indeed, he had been infected. His doctor put him on a heavy-duty series of antibiotics that got rid of the infection. In that case, I knew exactly where to get advice.

I had another friend who lives in a house in the woods near Vinland, Kansas. He bumped into my wife at the grocery store and mentioned to her that he had been exposed to a tick-borne disease. He also had the classic Target symbol. But his doctor told him he didn’t need antibiotics until he showed symptoms. My wife had just been through this with my student, so when she told me about it, I knew his doctor had given him the wrong advice. Several tick-borne illnesses go through an acute phase where you might get the equivalent of a cold. Antibiotics are very effective at that early stage immediately after exposure. It doesn’t show up in all cases, but it can become a chronic disease if not treated early. At that late stage, treatments are much more radical and are essentially like chemotherapy. We all want to avoid taking antibiotics as much as we can, but it's better than dealing with a chronic disease.

Incorrect information from medical personnel in this region is unfortunately common. They may not pay attention to a set of symptoms, ask if the patient has been bitten by a tick, or inquire if the patient is exposed to ticks during activities such as hunting, fishing, farming or hiking. There are a lot of cases of tick-borne diseases that get misdiagnosed in this region.

When is fieldwork frustrating, challenging or overwhelming?

With the tick work, we have a set of guidelines for conditions when ticks are likely to be active. It must be above 5 degrees Celsius — or about 41 degrees Fahrenheit, the wind must be below 15 miles an hour, and the vegetation can't be wet. We can’t work if it's a dewy morning. Frequently, our field team gets to the site and decides to wait two hours for the sun to rise and dry out the vegetation. Other times, if the conditions aren’t right in the morning, the team leaves and goes back to the crummy little motel where they're staying, and they sit and do computer work for the rest of the day and try again the next morning. The logistics are continually challenging.

What do you enjoy most about being in the field?

When I go into the field, it's a quiet time to reflect on the things I spend my life studying. My doctoral adviser once said to me, “If you're not in the field long enough to get bored, you're not in the field long enough.”

And it's true. Some of the fieldwork is just flat-out boring, but it's also time to think deeply and understand the landscapes where you're working — the species of ticks, birds or whatever it is you work with — and that helps put everything into context. You might not get anything out of fieldwork for years, but then eventually you start synthesizing and putting things together because you're familiar with those landscapes.

Also, I don't think I got into being a biologist so I could sit my butt in front of a computer for 14 hours a day. This past weekend, I sat down on Friday at 4 p.m. and I didn’t leave the house until Sunday morning at 9 a.m. In that period, I slept eight hours, and all the rest was sitting in front of the computer, editing documents for proposals and reports.

I've been a professor at KU for 28 years, and I'll do another 13 before I retire. I hope I don't spend all that time sitting in front of a computer. There's too much of the natural world to get out and appreciate.

<figure>
 <iframe width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xhVVgDYw6R8"></iframe>
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>KU News ServiceLAWRENCE - A team of researchers is sampling ticks throughout Kansas and Oklahoma to understand the risk of tick-borne diseases, which could help medical professionals better diagnose tick-related illnesses.The team — which includes researchers from the University of Kansas, Pittsburg State University, University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State University, and University of Central Oklahoma — is two years into its four-year project.KU’s team, led by A. Townsend Peterson, University Distinguished Professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior curator at the Biodiversity Institute, samples ticks at five sites across Kansas.They are detailing pathogen types, documenting infection levels, developing disease maps, and determining the presence of Lyme disease and other pathogens.<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/datasurveillance/maps-recent.html">The CDC’s official mappings</a>&nbsp;show ticks with the potential to carry Lyme disease are rarely present in Kansas and Oklahoma compared to the northeastern and northern parts of the United States. However, the team’s preliminary research shows ticks that carry Lyme disease are here.The researchers have collected about 40 ticks active during the fall and winter that have the potential to carry Lyme disease. They’ve also found about 10 other bacterial pathogens in the ticks they’ve sampled. For example, 10-20% of the ticks carry the bacteria that cause ehrlichiosis, an illness that causes fever and muscle aches.Ultimately, this research will increase understanding of tick populations and the pathogens they harbor in Kansas and Oklahoma.<figure>
 <img src="https://research.ku.edu/sites/research/files/images/2021/tick-co2-trap-collecting.jpg" alt="A team of KU biologists collets ticks at Clinton Lake, one of five sites it samples across Kansas. (Photo by Jarrett Mellenbruch)" />
 <figcaption>A team of KU biologists collets ticks at Clinton Lake, one of five sites it samples across Kansas. (Photo by Jarrett Mellenbruch)</figcaption>
 </figure>What methods are you using in your research?Sampling is laborious. A team of three to six people spends a full day in the field. We sample at two sites in each state every two weeks for two years and at five more sites four times a year. Sites include two counties in eastern Kansas near the Missouri border and another site far to the west, north of Hays. We had to balance sampling at more sites versus sampling with greater detail at a few sites. Everything you do with fieldwork is a tradeoff.While sampling, one person waves a flannel flag across the vegetation. If ticks are looking for a host or mammal, they'll grab onto the flag. Another person drags a piece of flannel between two poles.A third way the team samples is by using dry ice traps because ticks find their hosts not just by movement but also by detecting exhaled carbon dioxide. They're strange traps — a square of cardboard with masking tape, sticky side up, around the edges, with a lump of dry ice in the middle. The dry ice sublimates directly from solid to carbon dioxide, resembling how a mammal exhales carbon dioxide. The ticks crawl on the trap and get stuck in the masking tape. This fall, we’ll also add a fourth way of collecting ticks, which is by live trapping small mammals and combing their hair.These are the ridiculous things biologists do. But we’ve collected about 6,000 ticks so far, and it's going to get us a clear view of which pathogens are being carried by ticks around Kansas and Oklahoma. These are the pathogens that you and your doctors should be aware of, but a lot of the medical personnel are not aware of them.After sampling, we preserve the collected ticks and ship them to Oklahoma State University, where the team there identifies the tick and sequences its DNA to determine if it carries pathogens.<figure>
 <img src="https://research.ku.edu/sites/research/files/images/2021/town-peterson-1.jpg" alt="A tick crawls on a piece of wood. (Photo by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.romerostories.com/">Daniel Romero-Alvarez</a>)" />
 <figcaption>A tick crawls on a piece of wood. (Photo by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.romerostories.com/">Daniel Romero-Alvarez</a>)</figcaption>
 </figure>Why does your study matter to your field and to society?About 15 years ago, one of my doctoral students traveled to a field site near Lawrence. A day or two later, he came into my office and asked, "Do you know anything about this?" as he pointed to a mark on his leg. He had the classic tick bite and bacterial infection, which looks like the red Target store symbol. I was familiar with it because I had gotten a tick-borne disease previously in the Philippines. I told him he needed to go in for diagnostics. And indeed, he had been infected. His doctor put him on a heavy-duty series of antibiotics that got rid of the infection. In that case, I knew exactly where to get advice.I had another friend who lives in a house in the woods near Vinland, Kansas. He bumped into my wife at the grocery store and mentioned to her that he had been exposed to a tick-borne disease. He also had the classic Target symbol. But his doctor told him he didn’t need antibiotics until he showed symptoms. My wife had just been through this with my student, so when she told me about it, I knew his doctor had given him the wrong advice. Several tick-borne illnesses go through an acute phase where you might get the equivalent of a cold. Antibiotics are very effective at that early stage immediately after exposure. It doesn’t show up in all cases, but it can become a chronic disease if not treated early. At that late stage, treatments are much more radical and are essentially like chemotherapy. We all want to avoid taking antibiotics as much as we can, but it's better than dealing with a chronic disease.Incorrect information from medical personnel in this region is unfortunately common. They may not pay attention to a set of symptoms, ask if the patient has been bitten by a tick, or inquire if the patient is exposed to ticks during activities such as hunting, fishing, farming or hiking. There are a lot of cases of tick-borne diseases that get misdiagnosed in this region.<figure>
 <img src="https://research.ku.edu/sites/research/files/images/2021/tick-collecting-aerial.JPG" alt="The team sets up dry ice traps to collect ticks at Clinton Lake. The traps are made of cardboard,&nbsp;masking tape, sticky side up, and a lump of dry ice in the middle.&nbsp;(Photo by Jarrett Mellenbruch)" />
 <figcaption>The team sets up dry ice traps to collect ticks at Clinton Lake. The traps are made of cardboard,&nbsp;masking tape, sticky side up, and a lump of dry ice in the middle.&nbsp;(Photo by Jarrett Mellenbruch)</figcaption>
 </figure>When is fieldwork frustrating, challenging or overwhelming?With the tick work, we have a set of guidelines for conditions when ticks are likely to be active. It must be above 5 degrees Celsius — or about 41 degrees Fahrenheit, the wind must be below 15 miles an hour, and the vegetation can't be wet. We can’t work if it's a dewy morning. Frequently, our field team gets to the site and decides to wait two hours for the sun to rise and dry out the vegetation. Other times, if the conditions aren’t right in the morning, the team leaves and goes back to the crummy little motel where they're staying, and they sit and do computer work for the rest of the day and try again the next morning. The logistics are continually challenging.<figure>
 <img src="https://research.ku.edu/sites/research/files/images/2021/town-peterson-4.JPG" alt="Researchers&nbsp;Daniel Romero-Alvarez, Abdelghafar Alkishe, A. Townsend Peterson and Marlon E. Cobos&nbsp;

(Photo by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.romerostories.com/">Daniel Romero-Alvarez</a>)&nbsp;&nbsp;" />
 <figcaption>Researchers&nbsp;Daniel Romero-Alvarez, Abdelghafar Alkishe, A. Townsend Peterson and Marlon E. Cobos&nbsp;

(Photo by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.romerostories.com/">Daniel Romero-Alvarez</a>)&nbsp;&nbsp;</figcaption>
 </figure>What do you enjoy most about being in the field?When I go into the field, it's a quiet time to reflect on the things I spend my life studying. My doctoral adviser once said to me, “If you're not in the field long enough to get bored, you're not in the field long enough.”And it's true. Some of the fieldwork is just flat-out boring, but it's also time to think deeply and understand the landscapes where you're working — the species of ticks, birds or whatever it is you work with — and that helps put everything into context. You might not get anything out of fieldwork for years, but then eventually you start synthesizing and putting things together because you're familiar with those landscapes.Also, I don't think I got into being a biologist so I could sit my butt in front of a computer for 14 hours a day. This past weekend, I sat down on Friday at 4 p.m. and I didn’t leave the house until Sunday morning at 9 a.m. In that period, I slept eight hours, and all the rest was sitting in front of the computer, editing documents for proposals and reports.I've been a professor at KU for 28 years, and I'll do another 13 before I retire. I hope I don't spend all that time sitting in front of a computer. There's too much of the natural world to get out and appreciate.

🎥 STUDY: Rare, but ticks that carry Lyme disease are in Kansas

AMES, Iowa — Sipping a beer with friends on a weekday afternoon at Wallaby’s Bar and Grille, Chris Clough explained life as an Iowa State fan.

“You have to know that you’re going to see so many painful years and you just have to get over it,” he said, “and when you get those years when we’re good, you have to hold onto them.”

Cyclones fans also know the other shoe could drop any time.

It did just over a month ago when the Big 12’s flagship schools, Oklahoma and Texas, announced their intention to join the Southeastern Conference.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-college-sports-football-college-football-779a7f24b5f9b3082df24b990efc1a57">The move will take place in 2025, if not sooner.</a>

“We finally prove we can beat them,” Clough said, “and now they want to leave.”

Wins in the same year over the Sooners and Longhorns highlighted the Cyclones’ greatest season. They reached the Big 12 championship game for the first time and won the Fiesta Bowl, and this year could be even better after almost every starter returned.

A record number of season tickets have been sold, the Cyclones had their highest preseason ranking at No. 7 and a sellout crowd of 61,500 saw a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-college-football-iowa-53fa377b75b8b9a26f9693c15844f6f0">16-10 win over Northern Iowa&nbsp;</a>on Saturday.

While the fan base has never been more excited, Cyclone Club president Jay Chapman acknowledged last month “there’s a little bit of anxiety” about the future.

Some relief came last week amid reports the eight teams left behind by OU and Texas will stay together rather than go their separate ways to look for new conference homes.

<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-college-football-texas-longhorns-football-oklahoma-sooners-football-01920581d51ee33eb5debaa00a013b50">Three people familiar with the Big 12′s talks told The Associated Press on Friday the league is working to rebuild by adding four new members.</a>&nbsp;BYU, an independent, and current American Athletic Conference members Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston are the “most intriguing” candidates. One person told the AP invitations could go out this week.

The four new members would join Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia.

With Oklahoma and Texas in the Big 12, each member received a distribution of $34.5 million for the 2020-21 fiscal year, about the same as schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference and Pac-12.

Still to be answered would be how much television money a Big 12 without Oklahoma and Texas command.

“If you’re not in a Power Five of some sort, it can change the whole landscape of the university, just from a revenue standpoint,” said Tuey Rankin, a Texas Tech player in the 1980s and now a season ticket holder.

West Virginia fans haven’t bought into the excitement of playing a league member more than 1,000 miles away, so the loss of Oklahoma and Texas doesn’t take away any rivalries.

Still, Josh Martin of Moundsville, West Virginia, said: ““The conference isn’t worth anything without them.”

Having Oklahoma and Texas has been good for business in the Big 12’s locales.

In Ames, population 66,000, a home football weekend generates $7 million for the local hospitality industry, according to the city’s chamber of commerce. That’s nearly $50 million per season if there are seven home dates.

ISU athletic director Jamie Pollard and university president Wendy Wintersteen declined AP interview requests to discuss the impact of the departures of Oklahoma and Texas.

Clough, an Ames businessman and ISU football and basketball season ticket holder for 20 years, said when he heard the Big 12 flag bearers were taking off, he had the same sinking feeling as when Nebraska announced in 2010 it would leave for the Big Ten.

“Now we’re going to change it again, and as a fan base it makes things more difficult,” Clough said. “You learn to create new rivalries. No doubt it’s going to be interesting how it works out.”

Rankin, the former Texas Tech player, said there’s a lot of animosity toward the Longhorns. It’s not so much because of their move to the SEC, he said, as much as the secretive way it unfolded.

“We’ve got all this history together as conference members,” Rankin said, referring to the old Southwest Conference days. “They’re our rival, but I’m not sure we’re their rival. To just say we’re going to go do this and to heck with everybody else, I think that seems kind of selfish. I do not think ‘anger’ is too harsh a term. I think there is a lot of anger.”

For his part, sixth-year Iowa State coach Matt Campbell isn’t allowing himself to worry about what the Cyclones’ conference situation looks like down the road.

Potential recruits might have concerns, though.

“We win,” he said. “We’ll work to continue to win, and if you want to play for a winning team, come and play for us.”

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630945737387.png" alt="Leavenworth and 4th Street in Manhattan Google image" />
 <figcaption>Leavenworth and 4th Street in Manhattan Google image</figcaption>
 </figure>AMES, Iowa — Sipping a beer with friends on a weekday afternoon at Wallaby’s Bar and Grille, Chris Clough explained life as an Iowa State fan.“You have to know that you’re going to see so many painful years and you just have to get over it,” he said, “and when you get those years when we’re good, you have to hold onto them.”Cyclones fans also know the other shoe could drop any time.It did just over a month ago when the Big 12’s flagship schools, Oklahoma and Texas, announced their intention to join the Southeastern Conference.&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-college-sports-football-college-football-779a7f24b5f9b3082df24b990efc1a57">The move will take place in 2025, if not sooner.</a>“We finally prove we can beat them,” Clough said, “and now they want to leave.”Wins in the same year over the Sooners and Longhorns highlighted the Cyclones’ greatest season. They reached the Big 12 championship game for the first time and won the Fiesta Bowl, and this year could be even better after almost every starter returned.A record number of season tickets have been sold, the Cyclones had their highest preseason ranking at No. 7 and a sellout crowd of 61,500 saw a&nbsp;<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-college-football-iowa-53fa377b75b8b9a26f9693c15844f6f0">16-10 win over Northern Iowa&nbsp;</a>on Saturday.While the fan base has never been more excited, Cyclone Club president Jay Chapman acknowledged last month “there’s a little bit of anxiety” about the future.Some relief came last week amid reports the eight teams left behind by OU and Texas will stay together rather than go their separate ways to look for new conference homes.<a href="https://apnews.com/article/sports-college-football-texas-longhorns-football-oklahoma-sooners-football-01920581d51ee33eb5debaa00a013b50">Three people familiar with the Big 12′s talks told The Associated Press on Friday the league is working to rebuild by adding four new members.</a>&nbsp;BYU, an independent, and current American Athletic Conference members Central Florida, Cincinnati and Houston are the “most intriguing” candidates. One person told the AP invitations could go out this week.The four new members would join Baylor, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas Tech and West Virginia.With Oklahoma and Texas in the Big 12, each member received a distribution of $34.5 million for the 2020-21 fiscal year, about the same as schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference and Pac-12.Still to be answered would be how much television money a Big 12 without Oklahoma and Texas command.“If you’re not in a Power Five of some sort, it can change the whole landscape of the university, just from a revenue standpoint,” said Tuey Rankin, a Texas Tech player in the 1980s and now a season ticket holder.West Virginia fans haven’t bought into the excitement of playing a league member more than 1,000 miles away, so the loss of Oklahoma and Texas doesn’t take away any rivalries.Still, Josh Martin of Moundsville, West Virginia, said: ““The conference isn’t worth anything without them.”Having Oklahoma and Texas has been good for business in the Big 12’s locales.In Ames, population 66,000, a home football weekend generates $7 million for the local hospitality industry, according to the city’s chamber of commerce. That’s nearly $50 million per season if there are seven home dates.ISU athletic director Jamie Pollard and university president Wendy Wintersteen declined AP interview requests to discuss the impact of the departures of Oklahoma and Texas.Clough, an Ames businessman and ISU football and basketball season ticket holder for 20 years, said when he heard the Big 12 flag bearers were taking off, he had the same sinking feeling as when Nebraska announced in 2010 it would leave for the Big Ten.“Now we’re going to change it again, and as a fan base it makes things more difficult,” Clough said. “You learn to create new rivalries. No doubt it’s going to be interesting how it works out.”Rankin, the former Texas Tech player, said there’s a lot of animosity toward the Longhorns. It’s not so much because of their move to the SEC, he said, as much as the secretive way it unfolded.“We’ve got all this history together as conference members,” Rankin said, referring to the old Southwest Conference days. “They’re our rival, but I’m not sure we’re their rival. To just say we’re going to go do this and to heck with everybody else, I think that seems kind of selfish. I do not think ‘anger’ is too harsh a term. I think there is a lot of anger.”For his part, sixth-year Iowa State coach Matt Campbell isn’t allowing himself to worry about what the Cyclones’ conference situation looks like down the road.Potential recruits might have concerns, though.What does Campbell tell them?“We win,” he said. “We’ll work to continue to win, and if you want to play for a winning team, come and play for us.”___

Anxiety abounds in Big 12 towns with OU, Texas departures

Old World bluestem is crowding out native grass specie

By DAVID CONDOS <a href="https://www.hppr.org/2021-09-02/kansas-needs-to-hurry-to-stop-an-invasive-grass-from-changing-the-prairie-forever">Kansas News Service</a>

Keith Harmoney crouches down in a pale yellow field outside his 
office in Hays. He pushes back a cluster of tightly packed two-foot-tall grass, 
revealing the ground underneath.

In a typical native Kansas 
grassland, he’d expect to find roughly a dozen different plant species 
in the square foot of earth between his boots.

“Here, all we see — basically for 10, 11, 12 yards — is just one single species,” Harmoney said. “That's Old World bluestem.”

The
 invasive grass has turned this piece of northwest Kansas prairie into a
 monoculture, where a single species crowds out all the others until 
it’s the last one standing. 

And as it creeps its way across the Plains, Old World bluestem is taking over more and more fields like this one.

Harmoney, a range scientist at the Kansas State University 
Agricultural Research Center in Hays, is one of the people charged with 
finding ways to stop it. But he isn’t overly optimistic about his 
chances.

“It has the upper hand right now,” Harmoney said, “It kind of feels like the Old World bluestem is going to win.”

Decades ago, humans introduced Old World bluestem, or OWB, to this part of the Plains. But some of the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">characteristics</a>
 that made the plant an attractive import — its aggressive growth, 
prolific seed production and hardy tolerance to drought, fire and 
grazing — are the same ones that make it so difficult to rein in. Once 
it dominates a field, it’s nearly impossible to eradicate.

Now, 
Old World bluestem is transforming pastures and grasslands into 
biodiversity wastelands. Some researchers and landowners are rushing to 
sound the alarm in hopes of helping more people understand how Kansas 
can keep this invasive grass from overtaking the state — if it’s not 
already too late.

Both types of Old World bluestem growing 
in Kansas — yellow bluestem and Caucasian bluestem — are native to Asia 
and Europe. And like many invasive species, people brought them to the 
Great Plains on purpose.

The federal government planted OWB to <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">rehabilitate land</a> after the Dust Bowl. Highway departments have used it to control <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">roadside erosion</a>.

In
 the latter half of the 20th century, K-State’s research center planted 
the grass in Hays to study its potential for cattle grazing. The 
monoculture fields in the surrounding areas today stand as metastasized 
remnants of those studies.

Even the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program has <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">encouraged</a> landowners to plant it widely, particularly in Oklahoma and other parts of the southern Plains.

Those purposeful plantings allowed OWB to get a foothold. And the invasive grass took off from there.

“It's
 highly competitive,” Karen Hickman, director of Oklahoma State 
University’s environmental science program, said. “It can outcompete and
 outgrow — and inhibit the growth of — other native plants.”

One of the more sinister ways the plant does this is by chemically 
changing the soil to be less habitable for neighboring vegetation. 

The invasive grass releases substances, known as allelopathic chemicals, into the dirt that surrounds it. Hickman’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266555107_Experimental_evidence_that_invasive_grasses_use_allelopathic_biochemicals_as_a_potential_mechanism_for_invasion_chemical_warfare_in_nature" target="_blank">research</a>
 shows that this biochemical warfare significantly inhibits the future 
growth, reproduction and survival of nearby native grasses.

Once an Old World bluestem infestation takes root, its impact on the native ecosystem can be dramatic. 

Fewer native plants means <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">fewer insects</a>, especially bees and butterflies that rely on wildflowers. Fewer native plants and insects means <a href="https://www.kansas.com/sports/outdoors/article39664398.html" target="_blank">fewer birds</a>, such as lesser prairie chickens and songbirds.

“Native
 prairie is important to our system...from carbon storage to erosion 
control to pollinators,” Hickman said. “When we start forgetting 
that...that gets to be a sad day.”

It’s not just about wildlife. Old World bluestem could also <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/ks/newsroom/features/?cid=nrcseprd1336646" target="_blank">threaten ranchers' livelihoods</a> due to the extreme cost of managing it once it's established.

Even though it has long been planted for grazing, it’s not generally as <a href="https://neinvasives.com/species/plants/yellow-bluestem" target="_blank">nutritious or appetizing</a>
 as traditional Great Plains prairie grasses. So in pastures that 
include both invasive and native plants, cattle will often avoid eating 
OWB and overgraze the others instead. That can damage native species and
 give the invader another leg up.

Climate change may also benefit 
Old World bluestem. One of the plant’s weaknesses is that it’s less cold
 tolerant than native grasses. But as temperatures warm, its range could
 inch farther north. It’s now found in some parts of <a href="https://neinvasives.com/species/plants/yellow-bluestem" target="_blank">southern Nebraska</a>.

Yet, humans continue to give Old World bluestem a helping hand. 

Hickman
 said people commonly — and often unknowingly — spread its seeds along 
roadside ditches with mowers and across fields in the undercarriages of 
trucks and farm implements. The seeds can also travel from one property 
to another in <a href="https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/stories/2016/05/oldworldbluestem051816.html" target="_blank">contaminated hay</a> bales.

Kansans
 can help keep OWB in check by removing any small patches that sprout up
 on or around their property and cleaning the seeds off vehicles before 
they drive through.

“As with all invasive species,” she said, “prevention is key.”

If
 someone discovers widespread Old World bluestem on their land today, 
their options for eliminating it are limited. Hickman said the best 
results are likely to come from some combination of herbicide, burning, 
grazing and tilling to try to push the invasive grass into decline.

But
 all that could cost tens of thousands of dollars, and even if those 
efforts succeed, landowners would need to remain vigilant for the 
plant's return for years to come.

“It's going to require a 
long-term investment,” Hickman said, “and the fear I have is that no 
one's going to see the importance of that.”

That’s the dilemma facing western Kansas
 landowners like Randy Rodgers: If you find Old World bluestem, how much
 effort do you want to put into getting rid of it?

Rodgers 
finished his career as a state wildlife biologist in 2010 and planned to
 spend his retirement fulfilling his long-time dream of caring for his 
land — a mix of pasture, prairie and farmland in southwestern Rush 
County.

When he began buying the property over a decade ago, he 
wasn’t familiar with the invasive grass. But a few years in, he realized
 it already covered large sections of his fields.

“You're left 
with a choice: Do you kill the Old World bluestem off and give your 
remaining native grasses a chance to repopulate those spaces?” Rodgers 
said. “Or do you just give up and let the Old World bluestem take it?”

He decided to fight back, first with a backpack herbicide sprayer and then with his own two hands.

Over
 the past three years, he’s spent hundreds of hours pacing back and 
forth across his fields removing the remaining plants one at a time with
 a shovel and a bucket. He estimates he killed roughly one thousand Old 
World bluestems this way last year alone.

“I know it's crazy,” Rodgers said. “A rancher can't do that...they’re too busy, there’s no way.”

And
 even with all the time and effort he’s put into clearing the invasive 
grass from his property, Rodgers doesn’t expect to declare victory 
anytime soon.

“Did I get them all? No,” he said. “That's the thing...you have to keep coming back and keep coming back and keep coming back.”

That’s because if even a few plants remain, the species's aggressive 
growth capabilities could help it eventually take over again, if it’s 
left unchecked.

In Keith Harmoney’s research plots in Hays, Old 
World bluestems have grown at a rate of 15% compounded each year. And 
the plant is similar enough to native grasses that it largely avoids 
being singled out by herbicides, although a couple of the weed killers 
Harmoney studies <a href="https://webapp.agron.ksu.edu/agr_social/eu_article.throck?article_id=643" target="_blank">show promise</a>.

With the invasive grass already showing up in <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20190626/kansas-considers-quarantine-to-slow-spread-of-invasive-bluestem-grass" target="_blank">just about every county</a> in the state, he said trying to slow down its spread may be the best case scenario for Kansas at this point.

“Exponential growth,” Harmoney said, “is probably what we're going to be seeing in the near future.”

The state has held at least one public hearing on potentially <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20190626/kansas-considers-quarantine-to-slow-spread-of-invasive-bluestem-grass" target="_blank">quarantining</a>
 the plant. Harmoney said some Kansas counties have had discussions 
about designating it as a noxious weed, which would mean stricter 
regulations for limiting its spread, but none have taken action yet.

And
 as the Old World bluestem invasion continues, it endangers a lot of the
 natural features that make Kansas what it is. Tallgrass, mixed grass 
and short grass prairies — and the wildlife habitats that depend on them
 — will all be at risk.

“Long term, it has the potential to impact what we see,” he said, “and the beauty of (Kansas) as we know it.”

David Condos covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/davidcondos" target="_blank">@davidcondos</a>.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630684835330.png" alt="Range scientist Keith Harmoney inspects a research plot that's being overtaken by Old World bluestem at the K-State agricultural center in Hays. David Condos / Kansas News Service" />
 <figcaption>Range scientist Keith Harmoney inspects a research plot that's being overtaken by Old World bluestem at the K-State agricultural center in Hays. David Condos / Kansas News Service</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Old World bluestem is crowding out native grass specie</h2>By DAVID CONDOS <a href="https://www.hppr.org/2021-09-02/kansas-needs-to-hurry-to-stop-an-invasive-grass-from-changing-the-prairie-forever">Kansas News Service</a>Keith Harmoney crouches down in a pale yellow field outside his 
office in Hays. He pushes back a cluster of tightly packed two-foot-tall grass, 
revealing the ground underneath.In a typical native Kansas 
grassland, he’d expect to find roughly a dozen different plant species 
in the square foot of earth between his boots.“Here, all we see — basically for 10, 11, 12 yards — is just one single species,” Harmoney said. “That's Old World bluestem.”The
 invasive grass has turned this piece of northwest Kansas prairie into a
 monoculture, where a single species crowds out all the others until 
it’s the last one standing. And as it creeps its way across the Plains, Old World bluestem is taking over more and more fields like this one.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630684961400.png" alt="Keith Harmoney holds up an Old World bluestem seed head in a field that the invasive grass has taken over. The K-State research center can be seen in the distance. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>Keith Harmoney holds up an Old World bluestem seed head in a field that the invasive grass has taken over. The K-State research center can be seen in the distance. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure>Harmoney, a range scientist at the Kansas State University 
Agricultural Research Center in Hays, is one of the people charged with 
finding ways to stop it. But he isn’t overly optimistic about his 
chances.“It has the upper hand right now,” Harmoney said, “It kind of feels like the Old World bluestem is going to win.”Decades ago, humans introduced Old World bluestem, or OWB, to this part of the Plains. But some of the <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">characteristics</a>
 that made the plant an attractive import — its aggressive growth, 
prolific seed production and hardy tolerance to drought, fire and 
grazing — are the same ones that make it so difficult to rein in. Once 
it dominates a field, it’s nearly impossible to eradicate.Now, 
Old World bluestem is transforming pastures and grasslands into 
biodiversity wastelands. Some researchers and landowners are rushing to 
sound the alarm in hopes of helping more people understand how Kansas 
can keep this invasive grass from overtaking the state — if it’s not 
already too late.<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630684997395.png" alt="A lone sunflower plant survives at the edge of a field of Old World bluestem in Hays. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>A lone sunflower plant survives at the edge of a field of Old World bluestem in Hays. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Bluestem blues</h2>Both types of Old World bluestem growing 
in Kansas — yellow bluestem and Caucasian bluestem — are native to Asia 
and Europe. And like many invasive species, people brought them to the 
Great Plains on purpose.The federal government planted OWB to <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">rehabilitate land</a> after the Dust Bowl. Highway departments have used it to control <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">roadside erosion</a>.In
 the latter half of the 20th century, K-State’s research center planted 
the grass in Hays to study its potential for cattle grazing. The 
monoculture fields in the surrounding areas today stand as metastasized 
remnants of those studies.Even the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program has <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">encouraged</a> landowners to plant it widely, particularly in Oklahoma and other parts of the southern Plains.Those purposeful plantings allowed OWB to get a foothold. And the invasive grass took off from there.“It's
 highly competitive,” Karen Hickman, director of Oklahoma State 
University’s environmental science program, said. “It can outcompete and
 outgrow — and inhibit the growth of — other native plants.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630685032231.png" alt="This field in Rush County illustrates how Old World bluestem takes over a pasture. In the foreground, mixed grass prairie is home to a variety of plants. In the distance, monochromatic patches of yellow bluestem block native grasses from growing. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>This field in Rush County illustrates how Old World bluestem takes over a pasture. In the foreground, mixed grass prairie is home to a variety of plants. In the distance, monochromatic patches of yellow bluestem block native grasses from growing. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure>One of the more sinister ways the plant does this is by chemically 
changing the soil to be less habitable for neighboring vegetation. The invasive grass releases substances, known as allelopathic chemicals, into the dirt that surrounds it. Hickman’s <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266555107_Experimental_evidence_that_invasive_grasses_use_allelopathic_biochemicals_as_a_potential_mechanism_for_invasion_chemical_warfare_in_nature" target="_blank">research</a>
 shows that this biochemical warfare significantly inhibits the future 
growth, reproduction and survival of nearby native grasses.Once an Old World bluestem infestation takes root, its impact on the native ecosystem can be dramatic. Fewer native plants means <a href="https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd599057.pdf" target="_blank">fewer insects</a>, especially bees and butterflies that rely on wildflowers. Fewer native plants and insects means <a href="https://www.kansas.com/sports/outdoors/article39664398.html" target="_blank">fewer birds</a>, such as lesser prairie chickens and songbirds.“Native
 prairie is important to our system...from carbon storage to erosion 
control to pollinators,” Hickman said. “When we start forgetting 
that...that gets to be a sad day.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630685064677.png" alt="Tightly bunched clumps of yellow bluestem crowd out other native plants in this Rush County pasture. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>Tightly bunched clumps of yellow bluestem crowd out other native plants in this Rush County pasture. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>‘Prevention is key’</h2>It’s not just about wildlife. Old World bluestem could also <a href="https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/ks/newsroom/features/?cid=nrcseprd1336646" target="_blank">threaten ranchers' livelihoods</a> due to the extreme cost of managing it once it's established.Even though it has long been planted for grazing, it’s not generally as <a href="https://neinvasives.com/species/plants/yellow-bluestem" target="_blank">nutritious or appetizing</a>
 as traditional Great Plains prairie grasses. So in pastures that 
include both invasive and native plants, cattle will often avoid eating 
OWB and overgraze the others instead. That can damage native species and
 give the invader another leg up.Climate change may also benefit 
Old World bluestem. One of the plant’s weaknesses is that it’s less cold
 tolerant than native grasses. But as temperatures warm, its range could
 inch farther north. It’s now found in some parts of <a href="https://neinvasives.com/species/plants/yellow-bluestem" target="_blank">southern Nebraska</a>.Yet, humans continue to give Old World bluestem a helping hand. Hickman
 said people commonly — and often unknowingly — spread its seeds along 
roadside ditches with mowers and across fields in the undercarriages of 
trucks and farm implements. The seeds can also travel from one property 
to another in <a href="https://www.ksre.k-state.edu/news/stories/2016/05/oldworldbluestem051816.html" target="_blank">contaminated hay</a> bales.Kansans
 can help keep OWB in check by removing any small patches that sprout up
 on or around their property and cleaning the seeds off vehicles before 
they drive through.“As with all invasive species,” she said, “prevention is key.”If
 someone discovers widespread Old World bluestem on their land today, 
their options for eliminating it are limited. Hickman said the best 
results are likely to come from some combination of herbicide, burning, 
grazing and tilling to try to push the invasive grass into decline.But
 all that could cost tens of thousands of dollars, and even if those 
efforts succeed, landowners would need to remain vigilant for the 
plant's return for years to come.“It's going to require a 
long-term investment,” Hickman said, “and the fear I have is that no 
one's going to see the importance of that.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/9/1630685101895.png" alt="Randy Rodgers holds one of the hundreds of Old World bluestem plants he has removed from his land with a shovel and bucket. David Condos" />
 <figcaption>Randy Rodgers holds one of the hundreds of Old World bluestem plants he has removed from his land with a shovel and bucket. David Condos</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>The fight ahead</h2>That’s the dilemma facing western Kansas
 landowners like Randy Rodgers: If you find Old World bluestem, how much
 effort do you want to put into getting rid of it?Rodgers 
finished his career as a state wildlife biologist in 2010 and planned to
 spend his retirement fulfilling his long-time dream of caring for his 
land — a mix of pasture, prairie and farmland in southwestern Rush 
County.When he began buying the property over a decade ago, he 
wasn’t familiar with the invasive grass. But a few years in, he realized
 it already covered large sections of his fields.“You're left 
with a choice: Do you kill the Old World bluestem off and give your 
remaining native grasses a chance to repopulate those spaces?” Rodgers 
said. “Or do you just give up and let the Old World bluestem take it?”He decided to fight back, first with a backpack herbicide sprayer and then with his own two hands.Over
 the past three years, he’s spent hundreds of hours pacing back and 
forth across his fields removing the remaining plants one at a time with
 a shovel and a bucket. He estimates he killed roughly one thousand Old 
World bluestems this way last year alone.“I know it's crazy,” Rodgers said. “A rancher can't do that...they’re too busy, there’s no way.”And
 even with all the time and effort he’s put into clearing the invasive 
grass from his property, Rodgers doesn’t expect to declare victory 
anytime soon.“Did I get them all? No,” he said. “That's the thing...you have to keep coming back and keep coming back and keep coming back.”That’s because if even a few plants remain, the species's aggressive 
growth capabilities could help it eventually take over again, if it’s 
left unchecked.In Keith Harmoney’s research plots in Hays, Old 
World bluestems have grown at a rate of 15% compounded each year. And 
the plant is similar enough to native grasses that it largely avoids 
being singled out by herbicides, although a couple of the weed killers 
Harmoney studies <a href="https://webapp.agron.ksu.edu/agr_social/eu_article.throck?article_id=643" target="_blank">show promise</a>.With the invasive grass already showing up in <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20190626/kansas-considers-quarantine-to-slow-spread-of-invasive-bluestem-grass" target="_blank">just about every county</a> in the state, he said trying to slow down its spread may be the best case scenario for Kansas at this point.“Exponential growth,” Harmoney said, “is probably what we're going to be seeing in the near future.”The state has held at least one public hearing on potentially <a href="https://www.cjonline.com/news/20190626/kansas-considers-quarantine-to-slow-spread-of-invasive-bluestem-grass" target="_blank">quarantining</a>
 the plant. Harmoney said some Kansas counties have had discussions 
about designating it as a noxious weed, which would mean stricter 
regulations for limiting its spread, but none have taken action yet.And
 as the Old World bluestem invasion continues, it endangers a lot of the
 natural features that make Kansas what it is. Tallgrass, mixed grass 
and short grass prairies — and the wildlife habitats that depend on them
 — will all be at risk.“Long term, it has the potential to impact what we see,” he said, “and the beauty of (Kansas) as we know it.”David Condos covers western Kansas for High Plains Public Radio and the Kansas News Service. You can follow him on Twitter <a href="http://twitter.com/davidcondos" target="_blank">@davidcondos</a>.

Kansas needs to hurry to stop invasive grass from changing prairie forever

Junction City Commissioners will receive a presentation and request Tuesday night to move forward on construction of double sand volleyball courts at the 5th Street Park.

Kendall Schoenrock with Quality Play for All noted with Parks and Recreation Director Nick Younger they will take the proposal for the two courts that would be located north of the zip line on the northwest side of the park. "And we're also requesting that they connect north - south the zip line to the north sidewalk that runs against 5th Street.&nbsp;

The sand volleyball courts are part of the strategic plan to improve the park, and funds were initially raised for them. Schoenrock noted that their hope is to gain approval from the commission and that they find an "easy way to split the cost for the installation of those new sand volleyball courts." 

Schoenrock added that then it's just a combination of the outside equipment, and typically they engage Junction City public works to do some of the ground maintenance and upgrades to the actual facility. "Then it's just a question of resources on the City side."&nbsp;

Junction City Commissioners will receive a presentation and request Tuesday night to move forward on construction of double sand volleyball courts at the 5th Street Park.Kendall Schoenrock with Quality Play for All noted with Parks and Recreation Director Nick Younger they will take the proposal for the two courts that would be located north of the zip line on the northwest side of the park. "And we're also requesting that they connect north - south the zip line to the north sidewalk that runs against 5th Street.&nbsp;The sand volleyball courts are part of the strategic plan to improve the park, and funds were initially raised for them. Schoenrock noted that their hope is to gain approval from the commission and that they find an "easy way to split the cost for the installation of those new sand volleyball courts." Schoenrock added that then it's just a combination of the outside equipment, and typically they engage Junction City public works to do some of the ground maintenance and upgrades to the actual facility. "Then it's just a question of resources on the City side."&nbsp;

Sand volleyball courts are proposed for 5th Street Park

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is calling on Congress to pass legislation that would provide affordable health coverage to about 165,000 Kansans, including 7,400 veterans and their spouses.

Governor Laura Kelly said she sent a letter to Congressional leadership to urge Congres to pass legislation that would create a workaround for Medicaid expansion in non-expansion states, which she believes would provide 7,400 Kansas veterans and their spouses with coverage.

“Kansas is one of twelve states that has failed to expand Medicaid, and this political obstruction has prevented 165,000 Kansans from accessing quality, affordable health care,” said Governor Laura Kelly. “My administration will continue to fight for Medicaid expansion at the state level, but until then, this federal legislation will allow us to bypass the self-destructive politics pushed by the Republican leaders in the statehouse and bring resources, jobs, and life-saving health care to our state.”

By WIBW TVTOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is calling on Congress to pass legislation that would provide affordable health coverage to about 165,000 Kansans, including 7,400 veterans and their spouses.Governor Laura Kelly said she sent a letter to Congressional leadership to urge Congres to pass legislation that would create a workaround for Medicaid expansion in non-expansion states, which she believes would provide 7,400 Kansas veterans and their spouses with coverage.“Kansas is one of twelve states that has failed to expand Medicaid, and this political obstruction has prevented 165,000 Kansans from accessing quality, affordable health care,” said Governor Laura Kelly. “My administration will continue to fight for Medicaid expansion at the state level, but until then, this federal legislation will allow us to bypass the self-destructive politics pushed by the Republican leaders in the statehouse and bring resources, jobs, and life-saving health care to our state.”Passing House Resolution 4595, the&nbsp;Medicaid Saves Lives Act, or including a similar provision in the pending budget reconciliation process would allow for eligible residents of non-expansion states like Kansas to access full Medicaid coverage at no additional cost to state or federal governments said Gov. Kelly. Additionally, she said the legislation would increase federal medical assistance percentages by 10% for states that expand Medicaid. This would provide states like Kansas with 10 years to access full funding if they choose to expand Medicaid at the state level.

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