By JAMES BELL 
Hays Post

A new Fort Hays State University initiative is set to make
Hays a bit more enticing to students at Hays Academy of Hair Design by giving
students the opportunity to take advantage of student services at the
university as well as creating access to courses relevant to the beauty industry.

“The goal of this is a community partnership,” said Dennis
King, FHSU associate vice president of student affairs. "(It's) something to make
the community better.”

Through the partnership, academy students will have access to
a variety of FHSU offerings.

"One of the benefits of having this certificate program is
that the students are on campus, they get to experience other students," King
said. "They also are eligible for a Tiger Card. So it means that now they can
go to the sporting events, they can go
do tutoring, they can go to our Wellness Center for physical, mental
health. There's lots of different options and all of the services that are
available on campus they can then get around and get to use as well."

But the program also extends to academy students an
educational opportunity.

“What makes this really exciting is we feel like Fort Hays
bent over backward to make this a customizable approach for our students,”
said Len Melvin, Hays Academy of Hair Design owner. “We offer business training
at our school, however, we're just a 1,500 clock hour program. So that's a lot
to cram in in a short amount of time.”

Students that participate in the educational component will
take four one-credit-hour classes, culminating in a Business Essentials
certificate.

“With this customized four series of classes, our students
are now able to get what they need to go into the salon with the background of
business skills to be successful,” Melvin said. “So yeah, very excited about
this.”

The once-a-week classes will run late Monday afternoons and
will include courses on management practices, personal finance, accounting basics
and taxes and social media marketing for eight weeks each.

“I really want to get this business certificate,” said academy
student Brylee Rupp in a press release announcing the program “and I am so
thankful this is available now.”

Participants will also have the added benefit of utilizing
student housing, giving access to short-term students who otherwise might struggle
to find a place to stay in Hays.

“I think one of the big challenges that our students face is
his housing,” Melvin said. “The reason for that is our students might be here
for 11 months, or if they do the nail program, three and a half or four months.
And that's a really difficult living situation in Hays, Kansas, being that it's
a college town. So the housing opportunity for our students to fit into a dorm
and fit their contract with us is really exciting. And I think another
opportunity for our students to get into that college atmosphere feel like
they're a college student.”

And as a student-led initiative and a good first semester turnout, King said the idea is good for the students and the community.

“This really started with students, which I think is really
a cool thing to talk about,” King said. “One of our leadership classes, who had
some friends that were taking classes at the Hays Academy, got together with us
and called the administration together really and said, 'We have a gateway
partnership with NCK Tech, but we don't have one with the Hays Academy.' "

That conversation three years ago started the ball rolling
on the development of the program.

“And so that kind of launched the discussions about what we
can do together,” King said. “How we can help the community and help each
other? And I think that that's been a great part of this is that we get value
added to each other. … And so, I think it's just really neat that it started
with students with the idea of improving the community. And I think it's done
just that.”

And students like Rupp, along with her grandmother Roxie
Patterson, are already finding the program beneficial.

“I’m going to be my own contractor at 19 years old,” Rupp
said. “I don’t know how to budget a business, so I really want to gain more
education about dealing with all the finances with my business. I am excited
about learning all I can.”

Patterson said after 42 years in the industry, she thinks
the courses will be of use to the students as they enter the field.

Course instructor Andy Cutright “has been so good at opening
these students’ eyes about what to expect with a business and even their
personal finances,” Patterson said. “It’s a very good opportunity for these
young people to be able to take these cases. I’ve even learned some things
already.”

“I really want to get this business certificate,” she said,
“and I am so thankful this is available now.”

<div><iframe title="New program extends FHSU student benefits to Hays Academy of Hair Design" allowtransparency="true" height="300" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=2592m-11a00f9-pb&from=pb6admin&square=1&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=3267a3&font-color=ffffff&btn-skin=3267a3&size=300" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>By JAMES BELL 
Hays PostA new Fort Hays State University initiative is set to make
Hays a bit more enticing to students at Hays Academy of Hair Design by giving
students the opportunity to take advantage of student services at the
university as well as creating access to courses relevant to the beauty industry.“The goal of this is a community partnership,” said Dennis
King, FHSU associate vice president of student affairs. "(It's) something to make
the community better.”Through the partnership, academy students will have access to
a variety of FHSU offerings."One of the benefits of having this certificate program is
that the students are on campus, they get to experience other students," King
said. "They also are eligible for a Tiger Card. So it means that now they can
go to the sporting events, they can go
do tutoring, they can go to our Wellness Center for physical, mental
health. There's lots of different options and all of the services that are
available on campus they can then get around and get to use as well."But the program also extends to academy students an
educational opportunity.“What makes this really exciting is we feel like Fort Hays
bent over backward to make this a customizable approach for our students,”
said Len Melvin, Hays Academy of Hair Design owner. “We offer business training
at our school, however, we're just a 1,500 clock hour program. So that's a lot
to cram in in a short amount of time.”Students that participate in the educational component will
take four one-credit-hour classes, culminating in a Business Essentials
certificate.“With this customized four series of classes, our students
are now able to get what they need to go into the salon with the background of
business skills to be successful,” Melvin said. “So yeah, very excited about
this.”The once-a-week classes will run late Monday afternoons and
will include courses on management practices, personal finance, accounting basics
and taxes and social media marketing for eight weeks each.“I really want to get this business certificate,” said academy
student Brylee Rupp in a press release announcing the program “and I am so
thankful this is available now.”Participants will also have the added benefit of utilizing
student housing, giving access to short-term students who otherwise might struggle
to find a place to stay in Hays.“I think one of the big challenges that our students face is
his housing,” Melvin said. “The reason for that is our students might be here
for 11 months, or if they do the nail program, three and a half or four months.
And that's a really difficult living situation in Hays, Kansas, being that it's
a college town. So the housing opportunity for our students to fit into a dorm
and fit their contract with us is really exciting. And I think another
opportunity for our students to get into that college atmosphere feel like
they're a college student.”And as a student-led initiative and a good first semester turnout, King said the idea is good for the students and the community.“This really started with students, which I think is really
a cool thing to talk about,” King said. “One of our leadership classes, who had
some friends that were taking classes at the Hays Academy, got together with us
and called the administration together really and said, 'We have a gateway
partnership with NCK Tech, but we don't have one with the Hays Academy.' "That conversation three years ago started the ball rolling
on the development of the program.“And so that kind of launched the discussions about what we
can do together,” King said. “How we can help the community and help each
other? And I think that that's been a great part of this is that we get value
added to each other. … And so, I think it's just really neat that it started
with students with the idea of improving the community. And I think it's done
just that.”And students like Rupp, along with her grandmother Roxie
Patterson, are already finding the program beneficial.“I’m going to be my own contractor at 19 years old,” Rupp
said. “I don’t know how to budget a business, so I really want to gain more
education about dealing with all the finances with my business. I am excited
about learning all I can.”Patterson said after 42 years in the industry, she thinks
the courses will be of use to the students as they enter the field.Course instructor Andy Cutright “has been so good at opening
these students’ eyes about what to expect with a business and even their
personal finances,” Patterson said. “It’s a very good opportunity for these
young people to be able to take these cases. I’ve even learned some things
already.”And Rupp already sees the value as well.“I really want to get this business certificate,” she said,
“and I am so thankful this is available now.”Cover image courtesy Pixabay

🎙 New program extends FHSU student benefits to Hays Academy of Hair Design

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Ellis County Historical Society interim director Amanda Rupp stops by to share updates from the society.

The
Ellis County Historical Society is tackling a new year with new leadership and
a new vision. Interim Executive Director Amanda Rupp stops by to talk to us
about what's going on down at the Historical Society. On this episode of the
Post Podcast.

There is
a lot going on. Finally, finally, there's a lot going on. We have put in a lot
of work in the past 10 months, this small staff and I took over in like March,
so almost a year, but in 10 months, we have we have gotten a lot of stuff done.

So. And
you know, what I think is unfortunate right now is a lot of the work that is
required, the work that needs to be done is behind the scenes.

Right?
Right. A lot of people don't, you know, the, the doors have been closed. So a
lot of whispers, a lot of unknowns, but there is, you know, a lot you've been
on there. There's a lot of cool things down there. And it's time to you know,
after 50 years to reorganize. It had gotten a little out of hand. And then they
had some some tragedy with building issues. But And recently, this last summer,
we got all of the rest of the collection that we had stored off campus, back to
our location, and it needs to be gone through with a fine tooth comb.

Yeah,
yeah. So would to back up a little bit to give everybody kind of just a little
bit of background here. Yeah, when you guys took over? Well, specifically,
there was there was water damage in one of the storage buildings, where you
guys keep we're keeping the artifacts. So all of that the first goal when you
guys took over was getting it all into that one building. So you could start to
see what do we have? 

Yeah,
you know, we got gifted the Sternberg collection, if you ever went down to the
Sternberg Museum, when it was down on campus, it was down in one of the
basements of the buildings down there, then they had wall to wall stuff, and
everybody loves going down and visiting. And when Sternberg went out to the
dome, they gifted the Ellis County Historical Society with everything that
wasn't related to their mission out there, which was natural history. So we got
a lot of the human artifacts, and we didn't have the place to, to display them
all, and rented two units to put them, but they hadn't all been a session into
our database or into our collections. So many, many artifacts have been sitting
down there for years that has not that have not been a session into our
collection, and they need to that needs to happen. 

Yeah,
absolutely. You know, really, and I think, correct me if I'm wrong here, but
there's like two missions at the Ellis County Historical Society. One is
preserving our history. And the number two is displaying it right. But if you
can't, if you're not doing number one, you can't do number two, right?

And I
spoke this to the board. And when we first got started is you know, everybody
wants to see where we're going or what we're doing. But we need to assess, you
know, most of the majority of the board is fairly new, we need to assess what
we have before we can say what we can do with it. So that's, that's our goal.

Yeah.
And unfortunately, again, that's all that's all behind the scenes work. And you
know, and it's not a quick and easy process. I think if I remember correctly
from the board meeting, that you guys had last early last month, or early this
month, whatever it was recently. That was one of the things it's it's a years
long process, right to get through all this stuff, right? 

And, you
know, with the the operating budget that they have, we're working with it. They
fortunately got, you know, a three man crew that is working is splitting a full
time job. So it's it's part time work. And, you know, I'm proud to say that,
when I figured it up, it was like 2140 hour weeks that we've put in this work
to get done. So it goes behind the scenes, and it gets done by our direction,
and hopefully some volunteers.

Yeah,
yeah. And we're gonna talk about the need for volunteers here in a little bit.
But one of the things that also come out of that meeting that kind of struck me
was a lot of the collection is well, not necessarily related to Ellis County.

Well,
you know, beginning when they took that when they took objects, everything was
important. And they were trying to, you know, amass a great collection, which
they did. And then when we also got Starbucks collection collection, I don't
know exactly what their criteria was for taking collections at the beginning in
Sternberg, but it doesn't necessarily some things are not even from our county,
there's a there's a buggy from Sheridan County. Gorgeous, old 1890s, buggy,
little baby buggy, but things like that, that don't belong to our museum
necessarily, that we need to just search through. And then we have extras of a
lot of things that when we get down to it, can we take care of it properly? Can
we can we display it and preserve it properly? do it justice, so we need to
make some decisions there.

Yeah,
and it's not like again, this came out during that meeting. It's not like these
items if it wasn't one of the examples I think and I think it was you gave it
to the you have like nine pull behind or hold or walk behind.

And
those take up a lot of room. So I mean, they're great. And, you know, I'd love
to have one in my yard or something, but as decoration, but we can't store nine
pull behind plows, and, you know, even to display one, but there's also other
museums that might not have one other county museums or other entities that
that could. And that's our responsibility as the as a historical society that
we have a guideline criteria that we need to follow through with how we do a
session something or things like that. Yeah. And I think that's got to be
reassuring to the community, right? It's not like these items, you know, if
you're finding that they don't exactly fit in the in your collection, it's not
like they're getting chunked or sold, right? They're going to other museums or
right, I don't know, there's, there's criteria that you have to follow. I mean,
everything has to go through our board and make a decision whether this fits
our collections policy, and then the process starts of, you know, offering it
to other other entities that might use it or a specialty museum that might find
be able to collect just that, before we decided anything else with it. Now some
things will be, you know, are damaged beyond our control or our you know, worth
keeping. Those things ought to be assessed, as well by professionals that do
that. So, yeah.

But
going through that collection, and sorting through all that stuff, even the
sorting part, but then also doing that work of separating out nine or eight of
the nine walk behind plows, that requires a lot of time and a lot of people,
which is exactly what you're calling for. Now you need help. Right, right,

We want
the the community used to be involved in this. I mean, when they started in
1971, those first two decades, I mean, I look back at pictures and, and
documents and the community was involved. And they had a passion for it. And I
believe they still do. And maybe they just haven't, you know, had the
opportunity or the reach out to to get those people involved. But there's a lot
more people getting into the retirement age that need some activities. And this
might be right up their alley. So

Well,
you you you mentioned the retirement age, I was thinking to the students, you
know, yeah, what a cool way to interact with history of your high school
student, or maybe maybe even afford a student that, like myself immigrated into
Hayes, and you want to learn more about the history. My gosh, you can get in
there and touch it.

Right.
And we did have some some high school students helped us move that large
collection this summer. And yeah, you know, some of the things that they
learned just by looking at it, and they didn't, you know, they didn't realize
that we had an aerial camera that used to sit in that in an airplane for more
to and he was just fascinated by it, you know, just just things that sparked
their interest that they wouldn't have necessarily gotten to see in a textbook
or anything else. But yeah, I'd love to have some high school students too, but
we also have, we're working we were awarded a Dane Hinson. Scholarship or not
scholarships, gives me internship through the Fort Hays, so we will be doing
some interviews on campus next week for one student to help us a session and
and catalog, the textiles collection that we have this summer. So we're getting
some students involved.

Yeah,
that's awesome. I love to hear that natural. Yeah. The earlier this week, we
had a Dane G. Hansen, intern from the Hayes chamber joining us so that was it.
Yeah. Really cool program. Yeah, it is. So if someone's listening to us right
now, they're thinking, oh, yeah, like, man, I've got a few hours a week that I
could dedicate to preserving the history of Ellis County, what's the easiest
and best way for them to do that?

Well,
you know, to email me, email me at director at ACH s hayes.org. Or you can call
the office and leave a message and we'll get back to you our office hours are
kind of limited at the moment. And sometimes we're down at the campus. So we're
not sitting in our office, but that number is 6282624. And somebody will get
back to you. And you just fill out a a volunteer application and a little bit
of paperwork. Of course, we'd like you to be a member. But that's not
necessarily, you know, set in stone. But surely, surely, if you love history,
you want to be a member and it's affordable. But there's there's there's
opportunities for people that like to hands on build stuff, you know, we've got
a lot of shelves that need to be assembled or taken down, moved. There's some
people that want to do some desk work. And there's plenty of office stuff that
needs to be done before we get into the nitty gritty of actually cataloging
these items, which hopefully is coming really soon. Yeah.

You
mentioned the membership. I do want to talk about that. Because, you know, one
of the things that struck me again at this meeting was was How many members are
involved. So it's kind of, to me, it seems like a little bit of a weird
structure because you've got your, like, the Board of Trustees and you've got
your members and then you've got you know, we get I don't know if you want to
kind of quickly go through Yeah, how that all works.

So, you
know, back when we had an open museum That was that was a great idea you became
a member and you got in free, you can come by and look through anything, you
could use our archives and make copies at your leisure without charge. And
there's, you know, different membership categories like student and family, and
such. Now, you know, we're relying on memberships. Just to start off with, of
course, when we open up a new museum of some sort, they will be able to still
have those same benefits. But it's a spa, it's a way of supporting the
historical society, we use a large portion of it for our general general
operating budget. And so there's students, there's family, there's singles,
seniors, and then if you feel like you are able to give a little bit more and
would like to be a sponsor, we also have sponsorship levels. And, you know, I
continually talk about the the early 70s 80s, when, you know, the historical
study was booming, I say, they had a lot of members and a lot ours, our numbers
have dwindled, but they've stayed steady for the past 10 or 15 years of the
same 140 people that really want to participate and really want to support us,
but I think we can do a lot more. So this year, you'll see us a lot more out
doing a membership drive, getting more sponsors, getting more people involved.
Very cool.

Yeah. So
I mean, that and what a great way to support the best historical society if you
can't, or just really don't have the time to physically volunteer, you know,
become a member throw a little money that way for sponsorship and, and the
sponsorships. You know, we talked about this quite a bit here on the go morning
show. Every little bit helps, you know, if you've got 10 Correct me if I'm
wrong, but 10 $15 to sponsor something, that it may not feel like a whole lot,
but together with the data.

Right.
It adds up, you know, if, you know, 10, seniors $10. There's, there's $100. You
know, it adds up fast. And I say, our sponsorships have really dwindled over
the past few years, the the ones that are giving $75 or more. But if one of my
we have a 17, board member trustee, or excuse me, Board of Trustees, and if
every single one of them went out and got, you know, $100 sponsorship or asked
someone for $100 sponsorship, there's, you know, our electric bill for the
month, it really does add up. Very cool. Now,

You also
mentioned this, and I think we should probably talk about this before we go,
you've got a new office. So you've got the campus down there, where all the
artifacts are being now held. But you also have an office for your business
work. And that's in the eagle Plaza now. Right? 

Right,
it's right over here across the street, or down the street. And that was a
generous collaboration through the street Foundation, actually, we're taking
over some of their old office space, temporarily, so that we could kind of have
a centralized place to house in their storefront area to house our, our excuse
me, our archives, and our online store for books and genealogy research
material. So that's exciting. And then hopefully, we're going to get new
computers and new software systems.

You
talked about that the meeting? I'm glad you brought that up. Because I was
encouraged. You said, Well, really, you know, you've been on this for about a
month or so. But you're well over halfway to the goal. 

Yeah. So
you know, our computer systems are over, over 10 years old. There's a software
program called past perfect that helps us catalog everything. So someday, you
have a your great grandma donated something, and you wanted to go online and
look at it, we'll have a a, obviously with the fee that you can sponsor and
look at any item in our collection. It'll take a long time to put that in
there. But I sent out a annual appeal at the middle of December and asked and
asked our just our members, if they would if they would help us with this
because it wasn't in our general operating budget to just go out and purchase
these computers or purchase a a lease agreement with a company that would help
us and my goal was $10,000 and today we're close to six already in less than
two months. And so that's really encouraging that those that are our members
that are here already are willing to put some more towards us. And hopefully
the rest of the community too. Yeah, absolutely.

And
again, to me, it's encouraging that the folks are are it seems like you know,
understanding that hey, maybe the museum's not open right now you can't go in
and see the collection but the work is happening and they're supporting that
right. 

And now
it's been my goal also last year to if they can't come to us, we're going to
come to them so I've been talking to a few different places around town and and
they got stalled, you know, over the Christmas break and things got busy. But
hopefully in the next six to eight weeks, we're going to have to have satellite
exhibits around so that, you know, the County the county commissioners already
told me that we can put one in the county building. Oh, so we're talking about
putting a combine replica from a gentleman named Mike, Mike unrhymed that
invented a noun, then I'm gonna butcher the name of whatever employment he he
invented in the early 1900s. But anyway, so there'll be there'll be articles or
artifacts out there in the community that you can still visit. And it's
important for us to get those out there because people can't come to us and see
him unless they're gonna be volunteers, and they can see him firsthand. Yeah,
there you go. So

Well,
very cool. Um, well, I tell you, we've got to get over to our weather forecast.
But anything else you want to hit on or talk about before we go?

No, I'm
just happy to be here. And you know, I'm happy to chat. If anybody wants to
come in to our Eagle offices. You can usually catch me there. Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, about 1230 to 330 for sure. And, you know,
we've got Fizzers drop in and just tell me a little bit more about history, or
what interests you so very cool. 

<div><iframe title="Ellis Co. Historical Society eyes past while planning for the future" allowtransparency="true" height="300" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=eznsw-11a4af2-pb&from=pb6admin&square=1&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=3267a3&font-color=ffffff&btn-skin=3267a3&size=300" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>On this episode of the Post Podcast, Ellis County Historical Society interim director Amanda Rupp stops by to share updates from the society.<h2>Transcript</h2>James Bell&nbsp;
The
Ellis County Historical Society is tackling a new year with new leadership and
a new vision. Interim Executive Director Amanda Rupp stops by to talk to us
about what's going on down at the Historical Society. On this episode of the
Post Podcast.Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
There is
a lot going on. Finally, finally, there's a lot going on. We have put in a lot
of work in the past 10 months, this small staff and I took over in like March,
so almost a year, but in 10 months, we have we have gotten a lot of stuff done.James Bell&nbsp;
So. And
you know, what I think is unfortunate right now is a lot of the work that is
required, the work that needs to be done is behind the scenes.Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
Right?
Right. A lot of people don't, you know, the, the doors have been closed. So a
lot of whispers, a lot of unknowns, but there is, you know, a lot you've been
on there. There's a lot of cool things down there. And it's time to you know,
after 50 years to reorganize. It had gotten a little out of hand. And then they
had some some tragedy with building issues. But And recently, this last summer,
we got all of the rest of the collection that we had stored off campus, back to
our location, and it needs to be gone through with a fine tooth comb.James Bell&nbsp;
Yeah,
yeah. So would to back up a little bit to give everybody kind of just a little
bit of background here. Yeah, when you guys took over? Well, specifically,
there was there was water damage in one of the storage buildings, where you
guys keep we're keeping the artifacts. So all of that the first goal when you
guys took over was getting it all into that one building. So you could start to
see what do we have? Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
Yeah,
you know, we got gifted the Sternberg collection, if you ever went down to the
Sternberg Museum, when it was down on campus, it was down in one of the
basements of the buildings down there, then they had wall to wall stuff, and
everybody loves going down and visiting. And when Sternberg went out to the
dome, they gifted the Ellis County Historical Society with everything that
wasn't related to their mission out there, which was natural history. So we got
a lot of the human artifacts, and we didn't have the place to, to display them
all, and rented two units to put them, but they hadn't all been a session into
our database or into our collections. So many, many artifacts have been sitting
down there for years that has not that have not been a session into our
collection, and they need to that needs to happen. James Bell&nbsp;
Yeah,
absolutely. You know, really, and I think, correct me if I'm wrong here, but
there's like two missions at the Ellis County Historical Society. One is
preserving our history. And the number two is displaying it right. But if you
can't, if you're not doing number one, you can't do number two, right?Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
And I
spoke this to the board. And when we first got started is you know, everybody
wants to see where we're going or what we're doing. But we need to assess, you
know, most of the majority of the board is fairly new, we need to assess what
we have before we can say what we can do with it. So that's, that's our goal.James Bell&nbsp;
Yeah.
And unfortunately, again, that's all that's all behind the scenes work. And you
know, and it's not a quick and easy process. I think if I remember correctly
from the board meeting, that you guys had last early last month, or early this
month, whatever it was recently. That was one of the things it's it's a years
long process, right to get through all this stuff, right? Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
And, you
know, with the the operating budget that they have, we're working with it. They
fortunately got, you know, a three man crew that is working is splitting a full
time job. So it's it's part time work. And, you know, I'm proud to say that,
when I figured it up, it was like 2140 hour weeks that we've put in this work
to get done. So it goes behind the scenes, and it gets done by our direction,
and hopefully some volunteers.James Bell&nbsp;
Yeah,
yeah. And we're gonna talk about the need for volunteers here in a little bit.
But one of the things that also come out of that meeting that kind of struck me
was a lot of the collection is well, not necessarily related to Ellis County.Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
Well,
you know, beginning when they took that when they took objects, everything was
important. And they were trying to, you know, amass a great collection, which
they did. And then when we also got Starbucks collection collection, I don't
know exactly what their criteria was for taking collections at the beginning in
Sternberg, but it doesn't necessarily some things are not even from our county,
there's a there's a buggy from Sheridan County. Gorgeous, old 1890s, buggy,
little baby buggy, but things like that, that don't belong to our museum
necessarily, that we need to just search through. And then we have extras of a
lot of things that when we get down to it, can we take care of it properly? Can
we can we display it and preserve it properly? do it justice, so we need to
make some decisions there.James Bell&nbsp;
Yeah,
and it's not like again, this came out during that meeting. It's not like these
items if it wasn't one of the examples I think and I think it was you gave it
to the you have like nine pull behind or hold or walk behind.Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
And
those take up a lot of room. So I mean, they're great. And, you know, I'd love
to have one in my yard or something, but as decoration, but we can't store nine
pull behind plows, and, you know, even to display one, but there's also other
museums that might not have one other county museums or other entities that
that could. And that's our responsibility as the as a historical society that
we have a guideline criteria that we need to follow through with how we do a
session something or things like that. Yeah. And I think that's got to be
reassuring to the community, right? It's not like these items, you know, if
you're finding that they don't exactly fit in the in your collection, it's not
like they're getting chunked or sold, right? They're going to other museums or
right, I don't know, there's, there's criteria that you have to follow. I mean,
everything has to go through our board and make a decision whether this fits
our collections policy, and then the process starts of, you know, offering it
to other other entities that might use it or a specialty museum that might find
be able to collect just that, before we decided anything else with it. Now some
things will be, you know, are damaged beyond our control or our you know, worth
keeping. Those things ought to be assessed, as well by professionals that do
that. So, yeah.James Bell&nbsp;
But
going through that collection, and sorting through all that stuff, even the
sorting part, but then also doing that work of separating out nine or eight of
the nine walk behind plows, that requires a lot of time and a lot of people,
which is exactly what you're calling for. Now you need help. Right, right,Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
We want
the the community used to be involved in this. I mean, when they started in
1971, those first two decades, I mean, I look back at pictures and, and
documents and the community was involved. And they had a passion for it. And I
believe they still do. And maybe they just haven't, you know, had the
opportunity or the reach out to to get those people involved. But there's a lot
more people getting into the retirement age that need some activities. And this
might be right up their alley. SoJames Bell&nbsp;
Well,
you you you mentioned the retirement age, I was thinking to the students, you
know, yeah, what a cool way to interact with history of your high school
student, or maybe maybe even afford a student that, like myself immigrated into
Hayes, and you want to learn more about the history. My gosh, you can get in
there and touch it.Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
Right.
And we did have some some high school students helped us move that large
collection this summer. And yeah, you know, some of the things that they
learned just by looking at it, and they didn't, you know, they didn't realize
that we had an aerial camera that used to sit in that in an airplane for more
to and he was just fascinated by it, you know, just just things that sparked
their interest that they wouldn't have necessarily gotten to see in a textbook
or anything else. But yeah, I'd love to have some high school students too, but
we also have, we're working we were awarded a Dane Hinson. Scholarship or not
scholarships, gives me internship through the Fort Hays, so we will be doing
some interviews on campus next week for one student to help us a session and
and catalog, the textiles collection that we have this summer. So we're getting
some students involved.James Bell&nbsp;
Yeah,
that's awesome. I love to hear that natural. Yeah. The earlier this week, we
had a Dane G. Hansen, intern from the Hayes chamber joining us so that was it.
Yeah. Really cool program. Yeah, it is. So if someone's listening to us right
now, they're thinking, oh, yeah, like, man, I've got a few hours a week that I
could dedicate to preserving the history of Ellis County, what's the easiest
and best way for them to do that?Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
Well,
you know, to email me, email me at director at ACH s hayes.org. Or you can call
the office and leave a message and we'll get back to you our office hours are
kind of limited at the moment. And sometimes we're down at the campus. So we're
not sitting in our office, but that number is 6282624. And somebody will get
back to you. And you just fill out a a volunteer application and a little bit
of paperwork. Of course, we'd like you to be a member. But that's not
necessarily, you know, set in stone. But surely, surely, if you love history,
you want to be a member and it's affordable. But there's there's there's
opportunities for people that like to hands on build stuff, you know, we've got
a lot of shelves that need to be assembled or taken down, moved. There's some
people that want to do some desk work. And there's plenty of office stuff that
needs to be done before we get into the nitty gritty of actually cataloging
these items, which hopefully is coming really soon. Yeah.James Bell&nbsp;
You
mentioned the membership. I do want to talk about that. Because, you know, one
of the things that struck me again at this meeting was was How many members are
involved. So it's kind of, to me, it seems like a little bit of a weird
structure because you've got your, like, the Board of Trustees and you've got
your members and then you've got you know, we get I don't know if you want to
kind of quickly go through Yeah, how that all works.Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
So, you
know, back when we had an open museum That was that was a great idea you became
a member and you got in free, you can come by and look through anything, you
could use our archives and make copies at your leisure without charge. And
there's, you know, different membership categories like student and family, and
such. Now, you know, we're relying on memberships. Just to start off with, of
course, when we open up a new museum of some sort, they will be able to still
have those same benefits. But it's a spa, it's a way of supporting the
historical society, we use a large portion of it for our general general
operating budget. And so there's students, there's family, there's singles,
seniors, and then if you feel like you are able to give a little bit more and
would like to be a sponsor, we also have sponsorship levels. And, you know, I
continually talk about the the early 70s 80s, when, you know, the historical
study was booming, I say, they had a lot of members and a lot ours, our numbers
have dwindled, but they've stayed steady for the past 10 or 15 years of the
same 140 people that really want to participate and really want to support us,
but I think we can do a lot more. So this year, you'll see us a lot more out
doing a membership drive, getting more sponsors, getting more people involved.
Very cool.James Bell&nbsp;
Yeah. So
I mean, that and what a great way to support the best historical society if you
can't, or just really don't have the time to physically volunteer, you know,
become a member throw a little money that way for sponsorship and, and the
sponsorships. You know, we talked about this quite a bit here on the go morning
show. Every little bit helps, you know, if you've got 10 Correct me if I'm
wrong, but 10 $15 to sponsor something, that it may not feel like a whole lot,
but together with the data.Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
Right.
It adds up, you know, if, you know, 10, seniors $10. There's, there's $100. You
know, it adds up fast. And I say, our sponsorships have really dwindled over
the past few years, the the ones that are giving $75 or more. But if one of my
we have a 17, board member trustee, or excuse me, Board of Trustees, and if
every single one of them went out and got, you know, $100 sponsorship or asked
someone for $100 sponsorship, there's, you know, our electric bill for the
month, it really does add up. Very cool. Now,James Bell&nbsp;
You also
mentioned this, and I think we should probably talk about this before we go,
you've got a new office. So you've got the campus down there, where all the
artifacts are being now held. But you also have an office for your business
work. And that's in the eagle Plaza now. Right? Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
Right,
it's right over here across the street, or down the street. And that was a
generous collaboration through the street Foundation, actually, we're taking
over some of their old office space, temporarily, so that we could kind of have
a centralized place to house in their storefront area to house our, our excuse
me, our archives, and our online store for books and genealogy research
material. So that's exciting. And then hopefully, we're going to get new
computers and new software systems.James Bell&nbsp;
You
talked about that the meeting? I'm glad you brought that up. Because I was
encouraged. You said, Well, really, you know, you've been on this for about a
month or so. But you're well over halfway to the goal. Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
Yeah. So
you know, our computer systems are over, over 10 years old. There's a software
program called past perfect that helps us catalog everything. So someday, you
have a your great grandma donated something, and you wanted to go online and
look at it, we'll have a a, obviously with the fee that you can sponsor and
look at any item in our collection. It'll take a long time to put that in
there. But I sent out a annual appeal at the middle of December and asked and
asked our just our members, if they would if they would help us with this
because it wasn't in our general operating budget to just go out and purchase
these computers or purchase a a lease agreement with a company that would help
us and my goal was $10,000 and today we're close to six already in less than
two months. And so that's really encouraging that those that are our members
that are here already are willing to put some more towards us. And hopefully
the rest of the community too. Yeah, absolutely.James Bell&nbsp;
And
again, to me, it's encouraging that the folks are are it seems like you know,
understanding that hey, maybe the museum's not open right now you can't go in
and see the collection but the work is happening and they're supporting that
right. Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
And now
it's been my goal also last year to if they can't come to us, we're going to
come to them so I've been talking to a few different places around town and and
they got stalled, you know, over the Christmas break and things got busy. But
hopefully in the next six to eight weeks, we're going to have to have satellite
exhibits around so that, you know, the County the county commissioners already
told me that we can put one in the county building. Oh, so we're talking about
putting a combine replica from a gentleman named Mike, Mike unrhymed that
invented a noun, then I'm gonna butcher the name of whatever employment he he
invented in the early 1900s. But anyway, so there'll be there'll be articles or
artifacts out there in the community that you can still visit. And it's
important for us to get those out there because people can't come to us and see
him unless they're gonna be volunteers, and they can see him firsthand. Yeah,
there you go. SoJames Bell&nbsp;
Well,
very cool. Um, well, I tell you, we've got to get over to our weather forecast.
But anything else you want to hit on or talk about before we go?Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
No, I'm
just happy to be here. And you know, I'm happy to chat. If anybody wants to
come in to our Eagle offices. You can usually catch me there. Tuesday,
Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, about 1230 to 330 for sure. And, you know,
we've got Fizzers drop in and just tell me a little bit more about history, or
what interests you so very cool. James Bell&nbsp;
Yeah,
it's a community effort, right?Amanda Rupp&nbsp;
&nbsp;Yeah. So it's exciting.

🎙Post Podcast: Ellis Co. Historical Society eyes past while planning for the future

The Hays Arts Council’s Spring Art Walk might still be a
couple of months away, but work has already begun on the annual downtown Hays
event.

The Art Walk will follow a similar format to last year — a
day-long Saturday event — and will once again feature Kansas’ oldest juried fine
art competitive exhibition, the Smokey Hill Art Competition and Exhibition.

“I know that sounds like a long way down the road, but in case
there any artists out there that are thinking ... it's not too early to start thinking about where you might like to, set up
a little bit of art and have a little fun with us that day,"&nbsp;said Hays Arts Council Executive Director Brenda Meder. 

RELATED<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/4ac457f3-8ea4-4d8c-a0f3-d1051c5a0579">:
Annual creative writing contest showcases area youth’s literary talents</a>&nbsp;

She added she can help business interested in participating connect artists.

“I won't need information until well into April,” Meder
said, “but it's not too early to start thinking about it.”

Similar to last year, the Art Walk will feature a Friday night
concert before the Saturday exhibitions.

“It's going to be amazing the night before, on the 29th,
on the Friday, like we did last year, where we kicked off the Art Walk with a
Friday night event, which was the jazz concert.”

The Fort Hays State University jazz bands will again
perform, and this year she said will be even more special than a typical
performance.

“This will be the last year that those jazz bands will be
under the direction of Brad Dawson,” Meder said. “He's still going to be there
at the university and other capacities and stuff, but he's handing over the
reins of the jazz band.”

Inside the Hays Arts Council’s gallery, the Smokey Hill Art Competition
and Exhibition will anchor the Art Walk.

“The call for entries for the Smoky Hill exhibition just
went out, and that is the old state's oldest juried Fine Art competitive exhibition
open to any artist currently living in Kansas,” Meder said.

The exhibition is open to any artists currently living in
Kansas and is open to any original art in any medium.

“This is the 53rd annual,” Meder said, and we “have an
amazing juror, who's an artist John Hofmeister, an artist and author. ... For
years, he was leading the pack for the preservation of the Garden of
Eden. … His undergrad degree was in painting, he's an author and he's a KU
professor emeritus. So great judge, we've got lined up.”

<a href="https://haysartscouncil.org/smoky-hill">Artists looking
to sign up can find an online entry form on the Hays Arts Council website,
haysartscouncil.org.</a>

Visitors to the website will also find information about
upcoming youth programming as well, including the Famous Figures contest
information and winning entries from last year, and the Creative Writing contest.

RELATED<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/a8d093bb-8c94-4338-bf61-803b94e15c05">: Area fifth-graders once again called to showcase history</a>&nbsp;

“Those videos are all still there on our website, so you can
get an idea of what the kids are kind of coming up with,” Meder said. "People
can still go on our website and watch the 'Quiet America' film. So, there's so much
on our website. … <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Hays-Arts-Council-137869202896983/">But also I
really encourage people to follow us on Facebook, because we'll do a lot of
shout-outs and reminders and and quickie updates on things.</a>"

While looking ahead, Meder said there is still time to view
the Five State Photography exhibition in the Hays Arts Center.

“The fabulous Five State Photography Exhibition does continue
through February the 11th,” Meder said. “We opened it as people
probably remember as the anchor of Winter Art Walk already back there in early
December. But we do let this one run long, partly due to the fact that it's an
amazing show with 150 pieces, it's worth seeing.”

“There's 115 fabulous photographs in that show, all 8-by-10, from
photographers all across Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and Colorado.
And people really have enjoyed the show. I've been very pleased with the
response.”

The Hays Arts Center is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday
through Friday and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“Lots of stuff going on this spring, in the schools, in the
community and in the gallery Art Walks, so it's going to be a pretty exciting next
few months,” Meder said.

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1619658010171.jpeg" alt="Entry from the 2021 Spring Art Walk" />
 <figcaption>Entry from the 2021 Spring Art Walk</figcaption>
 </figure><div><iframe title="Planning underway for Hays Arts Council’s Spring Art Walk" allowtransparency="true" height="300" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=98725-119eac5-pb&from=pb6admin&square=1&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=3267a3&font-color=ffffff&btn-skin=3267a3&size=300" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>By JAMES BELL 
Hays PostThe Hays Arts Council’s Spring Art Walk might still be a
couple of months away, but work has already begun on the annual downtown Hays
event.The Art Walk will follow a similar format to last year — a
day-long Saturday event — and will once again feature Kansas’ oldest juried fine
art competitive exhibition, the Smokey Hill Art Competition and Exhibition.The event will be Saturday, April 30.“I know that sounds like a long way down the road, but in case
there any artists out there that are thinking ... it's not too early to start thinking about where you might like to, set up
a little bit of art and have a little fun with us that day,"&nbsp;said Hays Arts Council Executive Director Brenda Meder. RELATED<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/4ac457f3-8ea4-4d8c-a0f3-d1051c5a0579">:
Annual creative writing contest showcases area youth’s literary talents</a>&nbsp;She added she can help business interested in participating connect artists.“I won't need information until well into April,” Meder
said, “but it's not too early to start thinking about it.”Similar to last year, the Art Walk will feature a Friday night
concert before the Saturday exhibitions.“It's going to be amazing the night before, on the 29th,
on the Friday, like we did last year, where we kicked off the Art Walk with a
Friday night event, which was the jazz concert.”The Fort Hays State University jazz bands will again
perform, and this year she said will be even more special than a typical
performance.“This will be the last year that those jazz bands will be
under the direction of Brad Dawson,” Meder said. “He's still going to be there
at the university and other capacities and stuff, but he's handing over the
reins of the jazz band.”<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/4/1619658112701.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>Inside the Hays Arts Council’s gallery, the Smokey Hill Art Competition
and Exhibition will anchor the Art Walk.“The call for entries for the Smoky Hill exhibition just
went out, and that is the old state's oldest juried Fine Art competitive exhibition
open to any artist currently living in Kansas,” Meder said.The exhibition is open to any artists currently living in
Kansas and is open to any original art in any medium.“This is the 53rd annual,” Meder said, and we “have an
amazing juror, who's an artist John Hofmeister, an artist and author. ... For
years, he was leading the pack for the preservation of the Garden of
Eden. … His undergrad degree was in painting, he's an author and he's a KU
professor emeritus. So great judge, we've got lined up.”<a href="https://haysartscouncil.org/smoky-hill">Artists looking
to sign up can find an online entry form on the Hays Arts Council website,
haysartscouncil.org.</a>Visitors to the website will also find information about
upcoming youth programming as well, including the Famous Figures contest
information and winning entries from last year, and the Creative Writing contest.RELATED<a href="https://hayspost.com/posts/a8d093bb-8c94-4338-bf61-803b94e15c05">: Area fifth-graders once again called to showcase history</a>&nbsp;“Those videos are all still there on our website, so you can
get an idea of what the kids are kind of coming up with,” Meder said. "People
can still go on our website and watch the 'Quiet America' film. So, there's so much
on our website. … <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Hays-Arts-Council-137869202896983/">But also I
really encourage people to follow us on Facebook, because we'll do a lot of
shout-outs and reminders and and quickie updates on things.</a>"<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2021/12/1638486781857.jpeg" alt="Entries from the 2021 Five State Photography Competition, will remain on display until Feb. 11 at the Hays Arts Center." />
 <figcaption>Entries from the 2021 Five State Photography Competition, will remain on display until Feb. 11 at the Hays Arts Center.</figcaption>
 </figure><h2>Last day</h2>While looking ahead, Meder said there is still time to view
the Five State Photography exhibition in the Hays Arts Center.“The fabulous Five State Photography Exhibition does continue
through February the 11th,” Meder said. “We opened it as people
probably remember as the anchor of Winter Art Walk already back there in early
December. But we do let this one run long, partly due to the fact that it's an
amazing show with 150 pieces, it's worth seeing.”“There's 115 fabulous photographs in that show, all 8-by-10, from
photographers all across Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Oklahoma and Colorado.
And people really have enjoyed the show. I've been very pleased with the
response.”The Hays Arts Center is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday
through Friday and on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.“Lots of stuff going on this spring, in the schools, in the
community and in the gallery Art Walks, so it's going to be a pretty exciting next
few months,” Meder said.

🎙Planning underway for Hays Arts Council’s Spring Art Walk

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Chamber president
and CEO Sarah Wasinger talk about internships with the chamber's Fort Hays
State University, Dane G. Hansen Foundation intern Avary Huff.

Internships
can be valuable for both businesses and students. Hayes chamber president and
CEO Sarah Wasinger along with their Fort Hays State University, Dane G. Hansen,
intern Avary Huff stopped by to talk to us a little bit about internships and
Avery's experience that the Hays Chamber on this episode of the post podcast.

Oh, you
had a pretty unique place that you came from before you join our chamber. Do
you want to talk a little bit about your experience last semester before we
jump into some other things?

Sure,
Sara. So last semester, I was actually studying abroad in Spain. Wow. I was
there from the end of August to the middle of January. And I really got to
learn about tourism in Spain since that is my major. I was really putting it
into that real word world perspective, and also working on my Spanish. So had a
blast over there.

I
mentioned it's hard to not have a good time hanging out in Europe.

Yeah,
absolutely. A lot of good fish. I wouldn't call the fried sardines. Good fish.
But we talked a little bit about that. Like, what was the weirdest thing she
ate the definitely the best food over there.

I think
you may have been going to the wrong restaurants, just fried sardines. But
that's very cool. That's very cool. Um, so yeah, you're over here at the
chamber. Now, what does an intern do at the chamber.

So I've
only been there for a couple of weeks now. But I've been helping with all the
events that have been going on, and just really getting out into the community,
whatever's on the calendar for the day, I'm there to help and figure out how I
can be best assistance in the office as well.

So for
in another thing that we did, because it's kind of the beginning of the year.
So obviously, our board financial reports are approved a month delayed. So
Avery even got to experience creating the month by month budget report with me
this last week to Yes, we did was very exciting.

Um, it
wasn't the most exciting event I've worked on. But it was definitely a learning
experience.

But we
tried to give Avery the opportunity to really witness the gamut of what goes on
at the chamber. So obviously, yes, events are a very big part of what we do to
feature businesses, but really giving her some ability. The big part of her job
will actually start here very soon, because we're going to start preparing for
our golf tournament, which is our biggest fundraiser of the year. And that
might be a good segue to the question that we were just talking about in the
car. What was one of the things that surprised you the most about your last
couple of weeks at the chamber?

Um,
there are two things. So the first thing that surprised me is that most of the
Chamber's budget does come from dues. So based on dues from members joining,
that's how we're able to host events throughout the year, and then also the
fast paced environment that happens at the chamber. I don't think I didn't
realize that I wouldn't just be working in an office all day. You're really
getting out into the community. There's always something going on 24/7

Absolutely
it sir about that all the time. You guys are always always out in the community
almost every day. There's an event that you guys are at, or asmuch running
around us. 

I do you
think I'd be you know, like a slice for life goals right there. So I just need
to go see one of my members to workout.

And
we've got some new, we've got some new workout options coming up from what I
understand as well do we do I'm sure that I'm well, I'm not sure. But I'm
imagine that those new ones are going to be Chamber members as well. We have a
meeting with them. Okay. Well, now I've jinxed it.

We'll
talk about that when it happens. There you go, there you go. But one of the
things that is very important to you that I think a lot of people don't, maybe
they have some trepidation for being in a business that has a intern, it
doesn't really take a lot of energy, the biggest thing is to make sure you're
incorporating them into the day to day, give them a variety of ways that they
can be involved. And I think so many times people are like, well, maybe I just
don't have time to bring that person along. But Avery, I think has some
information to share just based on her experience so far, but this is not your
first internship.

So why
do you recommend internships to students and businesses.

Um, for
students, I would definitely recommend internships because it's a lot different
from the knowledge you're learning in the classroom, you actually get to go out
and apply it and see how it might not be exactly the same as what you have
learned from your professors. So you really just get that real world
application of those topics. And you get to learn all those skills to make you
more marketable as a student looking for jobs once you graduate. So that's
really exciting for this internship opportunity. And then as for the business
side of things, I would recommend internships for businesses, because not only
are you investing in members of your community, and growing their skill sets,
but you're also getting another extra helping hand so they'll help increase
your employee productivity throughout the day. And then you really just get to
have a fresh new perspective on things because interns are usually students, so
they're exposed to different things. They're not in the workforce. So they have
different outlooks on things and can definitely bring new ideas to your
business.

Yeah,
and you know what, over the years, I've had some different roles where I've
worked with interns, and one of the things that just to speak to that a little
bit, one of the things I love is when they bring in like the latest in, because
you're in the classroom, you're hearing the latest in academic research in your
field, whatever the field might be, and you're now able to bring that directly
to a business owner. I mean, that's a resource that they probably don't have
time for otherwise.

Exactly.
Exactly. It's a fresh perspective. And it's a real asset, because they are
learning that information. It's fresh on top of their mind, and they're able to
apply it at your business.

And
specifically speaking about the Dane G. Hanson program, I think that a lot of
people forget how affordable it is for the business. It's a $500 investment for
about 240 hours. Yeah, 240 hours. So I mean, if you do the math, I mean, I
think James is trying to do the math.

I came
up with a four nine or something, I couldn't do the math, talk either. But no,
that that is that's an incredible amount of help and support, you can get $400
That's a pretty good price. And you know, it's a win win. I you know, I mean, I
love the Win Win Win situations. And this sounds like exactly.

And I do
have to speak to the fact that when we interview, so each business gets the
opportunity to interview, you know, anywhere between four to five students. And
each of the students that we interviewed as a chamber staff, we were just blown
away from so I mean, you're talking about, you know, the cream of the crop when
you're looking at the Dean Johansen interns. So you're getting someone who's
already essentially pre vetted by Fort Hays, they know the caliber of the
students that are putting into that program. And so it is, you know, kind of
like hiring that hidden gem, because you're getting that opportunity to have
that fresh perspective that Avery was talking about. But also just, you know,
some extra hands on the ground. Yeah. And what better way to give back to a
student who might want to find a job in Hays because they love it so much, you
know, so it, it can help us build our workforce.

Exactly.
You know, that I was gonna say that was one of the topics that was discussed
last night was keep retaining people here. And what a great way to do it. You
know, I imagine like if we got somebody here at Eagle radio, and they they
enjoy the position, and then a position is open, like, if that's an obvious
choice, and then we know we're not losing them to Denver or Kansas City or
salon or wherever.

Very
cool. Well, you know, I just I'm curious, is it just college kids that come
through Fort Hays for this program, they don't look for any the high school. So
it's it's a imagine you have to be at least a second year college kid to be
able to apply? Apply them.

Right.
So the internships are open to all the Fort Hays students. I'm not sure if you're
able to do it your first year, maybe the second semester of your first year.
But other than that they're open for all the students to apply for.

And we
do also have a haste High School intern Reese liker that we have at the Chamber
currently right now too. So I know there are high school opportunities for
students. And I think those are usually reserved for seniors as well, since
they have a more flexible schedule. But um, yeah, definitely. If you're a
business and you have questions, we would be happy to answer those for you. And
I know I'm Career Services at Fort Hays State University, obviously would
welcome phone calls to learn more about the program.

Very
cool. Very cool. Well, before we run out of time, sir, we probably should talk
about the events going on this week, because you've got a number of things
going on. Again, as usual,

We do.
So, our HYP Advisory Council retreat will be this week, Thursday at 5:15pm at
the Welcome Center. And Friday, we are very excited. Speaking of Fort Hays
State University, our chamber chat will be the tiger gear on Friday, that will
be at 9am. At Professor sandwich shop and more, we do have it under good
authority that they're going to be drawing for some sweet Tiger gear that day.
So you might want to wear your Tiger Gear to that one, as well as just maybe be
ready to get a new cool new shirt or something.

I love
Tiger gear.&nbsp; I need you not to&nbsp;&nbsp; 

We bleed
black and gold. Exactly. It's I mean, it might be scary in the medical
professions. You know,

There's
such a vital part of the community and what a cool program to help that, you
know, connection.

Absolutely.
And we would be remiss to not remind a few people that chamber checks are
always on sale at the chamber. And Valentine's Day is just around the corner.
So if you don't know the right gift to get your sweetheart, they can be spent
at nearly 500 locations in Ellis counties. So it's not a bad idea. Yeah,

There's
some beautiful spots downtown. Well, there'd be the spots all over Ross County.
But yeah,

When I'm
let them pick the gift that they want. That's right, I found that that is usually
just the easiest thing to do.

Stay out
of the doghouse by a chamber check. or multiple again, another win win win.
That's my man. And then the only other thing we really wanted to share was
congratulations to our USD 489 School Board for their approval of the bond
issue to be put on the ballot in May, our chamber is actually going to be
hosting two different opportunities this month specifically, to give folks the
opportunity to learn more about what will be included in the bond issue. So
superintendent Ron Wilson will actually speak to our HIV connection lunch group
on February 15, at noon at thirsties. HIV members if you have not signed up for
that lunch yet, please do so today if possible, and then February membership
lunch will be February 25 at Rose Garden banquet hall and catering and that was
sponsored by Golden Belt Bank and he'll be speaking at noon as well. So
definitely make sure that you come ready to learn and he'll be able to ask
questions or answer questions.

<div><iframe title="Internship programs benefit area business; education" allowtransparency="true" height="300" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=e6vbi-11a0018-pb&from=pb6admin&square=1&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=3267a3&font-color=ffffff&btn-skin=3267a3&size=300" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>On this episode of the Post Podcast, Hays Chamber president
and CEO Sarah Wasinger talk about internships with the chamber's Fort Hays
State University, Dane G. Hansen Foundation intern Avary Huff.<h2>Transcript</h2>James Bell&nbsp;
Internships
can be valuable for both businesses and students. Hayes chamber president and
CEO Sarah Wasinger along with their Fort Hays State University, Dane G. Hansen,
intern Avary Huff stopped by to talk to us a little bit about internships and
Avery's experience that the Hays Chamber on this episode of the post podcast.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
Oh, you
had a pretty unique place that you came from before you join our chamber. Do
you want to talk a little bit about your experience last semester before we
jump into some other things?Avary Huff&nbsp;
Sure,
Sara. So last semester, I was actually studying abroad in Spain. Wow. I was
there from the end of August to the middle of January. And I really got to
learn about tourism in Spain since that is my major. I was really putting it
into that real word world perspective, and also working on my Spanish. So had a
blast over there.James Bell&nbsp;
I
mentioned it's hard to not have a good time hanging out in Europe.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
Yeah,
absolutely. A lot of good fish. I wouldn't call the fried sardines. Good fish.
But we talked a little bit about that. Like, what was the weirdest thing she
ate the definitely the best food over there.James Bell&nbsp;
I think
you may have been going to the wrong restaurants, just fried sardines. But
that's very cool. That's very cool. Um, so yeah, you're over here at the
chamber. Now, what does an intern do at the chamber.Avary Huff&nbsp;
So I've
only been there for a couple of weeks now. But I've been helping with all the
events that have been going on, and just really getting out into the community,
whatever's on the calendar for the day, I'm there to help and figure out how I
can be best assistance in the office as well.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
So for
in another thing that we did, because it's kind of the beginning of the year.
So obviously, our board financial reports are approved a month delayed. So
Avery even got to experience creating the month by month budget report with me
this last week to Yes, we did was very exciting.Avary Huff&nbsp;
Um, it
wasn't the most exciting event I've worked on. But it was definitely a learning
experience.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
But we
tried to give Avery the opportunity to really witness the gamut of what goes on
at the chamber. So obviously, yes, events are a very big part of what we do to
feature businesses, but really giving her some ability. The big part of her job
will actually start here very soon, because we're going to start preparing for
our golf tournament, which is our biggest fundraiser of the year. And that
might be a good segue to the question that we were just talking about in the
car. What was one of the things that surprised you the most about your last
couple of weeks at the chamber?Avary Huff&nbsp;
Um,
there are two things. So the first thing that surprised me is that most of the
Chamber's budget does come from dues. So based on dues from members joining,
that's how we're able to host events throughout the year, and then also the
fast paced environment that happens at the chamber. I don't think I didn't
realize that I wouldn't just be working in an office all day. You're really
getting out into the community. There's always something going on 24/7James Bell&nbsp;
Absolutely
it sir about that all the time. You guys are always always out in the community
almost every day. There's an event that you guys are at, or asmuch running
around us. Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
I do you
think I'd be you know, like a slice for life goals right there. So I just need
to go see one of my members to workout.James Bell&nbsp;
And
we've got some new, we've got some new workout options coming up from what I
understand as well do we do I'm sure that I'm well, I'm not sure. But I'm
imagine that those new ones are going to be Chamber members as well. We have a
meeting with them. Okay. Well, now I've jinxed it.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
We'll
talk about that when it happens. There you go, there you go. But one of the
things that is very important to you that I think a lot of people don't, maybe
they have some trepidation for being in a business that has a intern, it
doesn't really take a lot of energy, the biggest thing is to make sure you're
incorporating them into the day to day, give them a variety of ways that they
can be involved. And I think so many times people are like, well, maybe I just
don't have time to bring that person along. But Avery, I think has some
information to share just based on her experience so far, but this is not your
first internship.James Bell&nbsp;
Is that
right? Avary Huff&nbsp;
No, it's
my third. Okay. Wow.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
So why
do you recommend internships to students and businesses.Avary Huff&nbsp;
Um, for
students, I would definitely recommend internships because it's a lot different
from the knowledge you're learning in the classroom, you actually get to go out
and apply it and see how it might not be exactly the same as what you have
learned from your professors. So you really just get that real world
application of those topics. And you get to learn all those skills to make you
more marketable as a student looking for jobs once you graduate. So that's
really exciting for this internship opportunity. And then as for the business
side of things, I would recommend internships for businesses, because not only
are you investing in members of your community, and growing their skill sets,
but you're also getting another extra helping hand so they'll help increase
your employee productivity throughout the day. And then you really just get to
have a fresh new perspective on things because interns are usually students, so
they're exposed to different things. They're not in the workforce. So they have
different outlooks on things and can definitely bring new ideas to your
business.James Bell&nbsp;
Yeah,
and you know what, over the years, I've had some different roles where I've
worked with interns, and one of the things that just to speak to that a little
bit, one of the things I love is when they bring in like the latest in, because
you're in the classroom, you're hearing the latest in academic research in your
field, whatever the field might be, and you're now able to bring that directly
to a business owner. I mean, that's a resource that they probably don't have
time for otherwise.Avary Huff&nbsp;
Exactly.
Exactly. It's a fresh perspective. And it's a real asset, because they are
learning that information. It's fresh on top of their mind, and they're able to
apply it at your business.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
And
specifically speaking about the Dane G. Hanson program, I think that a lot of
people forget how affordable it is for the business. It's a $500 investment for
about 240 hours. Yeah, 240 hours. So I mean, if you do the math, I mean, I
think James is trying to do the math.James Bell&nbsp;
I came
up with a four nine or something, I couldn't do the math, talk either. But no,
that that is that's an incredible amount of help and support, you can get $400
That's a pretty good price. And you know, it's a win win. I you know, I mean, I
love the Win Win Win situations. And this sounds like exactly.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
And I do
have to speak to the fact that when we interview, so each business gets the
opportunity to interview, you know, anywhere between four to five students. And
each of the students that we interviewed as a chamber staff, we were just blown
away from so I mean, you're talking about, you know, the cream of the crop when
you're looking at the Dean Johansen interns. So you're getting someone who's
already essentially pre vetted by Fort Hays, they know the caliber of the
students that are putting into that program. And so it is, you know, kind of
like hiring that hidden gem, because you're getting that opportunity to have
that fresh perspective that Avery was talking about. But also just, you know,
some extra hands on the ground. Yeah. And what better way to give back to a
student who might want to find a job in Hays because they love it so much, you
know, so it, it can help us build our workforce.James Bell&nbsp;
Exactly.
You know, that I was gonna say that was one of the topics that was discussed
last night was keep retaining people here. And what a great way to do it. You
know, I imagine like if we got somebody here at Eagle radio, and they they
enjoy the position, and then a position is open, like, if that's an obvious
choice, and then we know we're not losing them to Denver or Kansas City or
salon or wherever.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
Absolutely.James Bell&nbsp;
Very
cool. Well, you know, I just I'm curious, is it just college kids that come
through Fort Hays for this program, they don't look for any the high school. So
it's it's a imagine you have to be at least a second year college kid to be
able to apply? Apply them.Avary Huff&nbsp;
Right.
So the internships are open to all the Fort Hays students. I'm not sure if you're
able to do it your first year, maybe the second semester of your first year.
But other than that they're open for all the students to apply for.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
And we
do also have a haste High School intern Reese liker that we have at the Chamber
currently right now too. So I know there are high school opportunities for
students. And I think those are usually reserved for seniors as well, since
they have a more flexible schedule. But um, yeah, definitely. If you're a
business and you have questions, we would be happy to answer those for you. And
I know I'm Career Services at Fort Hays State University, obviously would
welcome phone calls to learn more about the program.James Bell&nbsp;
Very
cool. Very cool. Well, before we run out of time, sir, we probably should talk
about the events going on this week, because you've got a number of things
going on. Again, as usual,Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
We do.
So, our HYP Advisory Council retreat will be this week, Thursday at 5:15pm at
the Welcome Center. And Friday, we are very excited. Speaking of Fort Hays
State University, our chamber chat will be the tiger gear on Friday, that will
be at 9am. At Professor sandwich shop and more, we do have it under good
authority that they're going to be drawing for some sweet Tiger gear that day.
So you might want to wear your Tiger Gear to that one, as well as just maybe be
ready to get a new cool new shirt or something.James Bell&nbsp;
I love
Tiger gear.&nbsp; I need you not to&nbsp;&nbsp; Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
We bleed
black and gold. Exactly. It's I mean, it might be scary in the medical
professions. You know,James Bell&nbsp;
There's
such a vital part of the community and what a cool program to help that, you
know, connection.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
Absolutely.
And we would be remiss to not remind a few people that chamber checks are
always on sale at the chamber. And Valentine's Day is just around the corner.
So if you don't know the right gift to get your sweetheart, they can be spent
at nearly 500 locations in Ellis counties. So it's not a bad idea. Yeah,James Bell&nbsp;
There's
some beautiful spots downtown. Well, there'd be the spots all over Ross County.
But yeah,Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
restaurantsJames Bell&nbsp;
When I'm
let them pick the gift that they want. That's right, I found that that is usually
just the easiest thing to do.Sarah Wasinger&nbsp;
Stay out
of the doghouse by a chamber check. or multiple again, another win win win.
That's my man. And then the only other thing we really wanted to share was
congratulations to our USD 489 School Board for their approval of the bond
issue to be put on the ballot in May, our chamber is actually going to be
hosting two different opportunities this month specifically, to give folks the
opportunity to learn more about what will be included in the bond issue. So
superintendent Ron Wilson will actually speak to our HIV connection lunch group
on February 15, at noon at thirsties. HIV members if you have not signed up for
that lunch yet, please do so today if possible, and then February membership
lunch will be February 25 at Rose Garden banquet hall and catering and that was
sponsored by Golden Belt Bank and he'll be speaking at noon as well. So
definitely make sure that you come ready to learn and he'll be able to ask
questions or answer questions.

🎙Post Podcast: Internship programs benefit area business; education

On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares the latest from Grow Hays.

The economic future of Ellis County is up to all of us, Grow Hays executive director, Doug Williams stops by to talk a little bit about some of the initiatives going on in the area concerning economic development on this episode of the Post Podcast.&nbsp; The first one I think we want to talk about, and this was this is topical, this came up last night at the city commission work session, they're talking about a sales tax initiative, as part of their bond issue you want to, before we get into it, just tell everybody a little bit if they don't know what what this entails,

Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;

Well, obviously, the USD 49 is exploring the possibility of a bond issue to build new schools or improve the schools we have. And there are a couple of ways they can pay for that they can do a bond issue, and that can be levied via property tax, or they can do a combination of property tax, and also, with the city's permission, and with the voters' approval, put it out a portion of it on a sales tax. And so they were approaching the city of Hayes about the concept of a half a cent sales tax locally, within the city of Hays or 49. District, I'm not sure exactly how that works. But that would be a half-cent sales tax levied for 10 years. And the proceeds from that sales tax would go towards retiring the bond issue, along with property tax and that kind of thing. And they illustrated what the property tax would be on a typical home in Hays with the sales tax in place, and then without the sales tax in place.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but they tried to do this on the bond issue about eight years ago as well. Right. And if I remember correctly, the sales tax piece did pass it but the Bond didn't.

Right. And so it was moot at that point? Because you've with this one the way they explained it last night and I don't want to steal USD 49 stander, I know they come on here as well. But I'm sure we'll be talking the way they explained it last night was it if the sales tax would pass and the bond issue wouldn't, the sales tax would not go into effect. If the bond issue passed, and the sales tax did not the bond issue would still pass and be carried out. And they would build the new schools and make the improvements and that type of thing. So but the sales tax would be conditioned upon the bond passing? Sure.

Now, I think we've talked about this enough in the past, I think both of us I think our opinions are pretty clear that generally, whether it be this bond or a different bond or some way or another, we're going to have to fix those facilities. But what I'm curious about is your thoughts on is the sales tax, a good way to do that? Because I think about the trade area or the 1.7 pull or pull factor that we have for the local economy. I wonder, do you think of that impacts that?

I think it is a good way to do it? Does it impact that maybe a little bit. But if you look, the thing you have to look at is regionally how our sales tax compares to other places where people would go and shop. And we're right in line, even with a half a percent bump, we were below our peer communities in western Kansas, in central Kansas, before the city, the county passed their half-cent sales tax that took it from 8.25 to 8.75. This would take it from 8.75 to nine and a quarter. Still within the norm of communities our size, so I don't see a lot of harm in that. And it would soften the blow for the property taxpayers have within USD 489. So I think it's a good way to do it. There will be some complaints from remote areas and local areas. You know, I I just because it's a sales tax doesn't mean you're not going to pay something, you're just gonna pay it in smaller increments and that kind of thing. And so but that, you know, as we've talked many times before, and we will many times in the future until this is playing itself out. We have kicked the can down the road as far as we can kick it in regard to our schools, and we have to do something. And this is a good way to do it. It makes it more affordable for the typical taxpayer. And, and it does spread the cost of those schools over some other communities of which, you know, when we pay our state property taxes here, we pay for other community schools because they get some funding that we don't. So it's not like we're picking on everybody from out of town. We're just kind of leveling the playing field. And I think Ron Wilson pointed that out last night.

Okay. You know, I think about too, you know, part of the discussions that I've heard is, you know, the facilities, we don't have the facilities we need to do, you know, tournaments and things where we'd bring groups of people in and those kinds of events. You know, they do have a regional impact. I think about people stopping for gas in Russell or walking on the way here, hopefully, they spend their money here. But you know, they're going to some of those folks hit those little towns coming into Hays.

They are and then more people we get into the community for all types of events, the better, you know, potentially fills up hotel rooms that people buy gas, they buy dinner, they maybe go and buy things at Walmart to the mall or wherever they shop and Home Depot. So activity generates additional dollars and facilities help that for sure. And then just the general overcrowding situations we have within our schools right now, you know, we're over capacity in a couple of them. And, and, and the fact that the way people, the way teachers teach and the way kids learn today is much different than the traditional classrooms. And unfortunately, we're still stuck in that traditional classroom mode because of the facilities we have. But yeah, I think I think all of that would add to economic activity for the area.

Yeah. And we talked about this in the past, I mean, the economic impact to these bonds is is huge, both on the front end of the people, we can't get into Hayes, because of the status of the facilities or the way that they look. And, you know, into the future, that workforce, the how that all comes together into one thing, and it's all not good if we can't get people here?

Well, exactly. It's a key component of our economy and our local community. And, you know, we have to make investments. And as I said, Didn't will continue to say, in my opinion, the cost of not passing a bond is far greater than the cost of the bond itself. And I think if we look at what the consequences are if we don't pass a bond and improve our schools, we will suffer accordingly. And it's harder to quantify for sure. But we will suffer and we will end up, in the long run, paying more than what we're paying for the actual bond term.

&nbsp;Now, I know I imagine one that this is going to be one of the topics of conversation of this town hall that's coming up on Monday, the Imagine Ellis County, town hall, right, get the right word. But that's gonna be an opportunity for folks to come in and talk about issues like this, right?

It is, Imagine Ellis County was formed to try and take a look at Dallas County, what we want to look like in 510 2030 years, and to identify areas where we may have some challenges and as well as identify our strengths. And we have spent some time talking to business owners and community leaders, organization leaders as to what their challenges are, and, and obviously, educational facilities come up all the time, as does housing, as does childcare, and workforce and all of those things. But now, we're trying to engage the community members to see if they have any specific thoughts and ideas, basically. And so that's what our town hall meeting is about. We want to share what we have found from the business community and the organizations we have talked to, and then also get feedback from community members as to what they would like to see what their vision might be. And put those two together. So this is our first town hall meeting, we plan to try and have them in Victoria analysis in the coming months. And then we're putting out a community survey this summer, that will try and address some of these issues and get input from the community. And so we're kicking it all off Monday evening from 530 to eight o'clock at the Hilton Garden Inn. And we would like great attendance, we need feedback. So I encourage anybody to attend, we'd like you to register at either our imagine Ellis County Facebook page, we've got a link or the Grow Hayes, Facebook page, or call us or what have you. If you don't get registered, that doesn't mean we don't want you to come because we would like you to come out as well. But we're trying to get a headcount because we're going to feed you.

Hey, do you know how many people have signed up already?

I think we're somewhere between 40 and 50. Maybe know something not bad. But we'd love to get 100 people there, we really would we want feedback, the more the better. And you know, no ideas necessarily too small or too crazy. We're trying to keep you know, a blank slate and see what we can come up with. So I would encourage anybody that has an interest in Ellis County in our future to come out and offer their input.

Yeah, this is a wonderful opportunity to do so because I can't have you know, all the places I've been over the last, you know, 25 or so years of my professional life. I don't ever remember a community doing something like this, like asking people to come together and tell us what do you want our community to be? And I think that's just huge. And I hope that a lot of people take advantage of this and just breaking down the doors come Monday night to share their ideas and thoughts.

Well, we hope so too. You know, I think it's important that we get feedback and that people get to give us their thoughts and their ideas as opposed to you know later on saying, well, nobody asked me what we're asking, you know, we want to know. So hope, more people, a lot of people can come out and we look forward to a productive session Monday night.

Very cool. And the other thing we want to talk about we hit this up a little bit last week, I think, well, I should, I think it was our main topic of conversation, the housing report that's coming up, you've set a date on that, I believe, of the 15th, that's coming out, right? That's correct.

And I don't want to oversell this, it scares me a little bit that we've talked about it too much. But this is our just our look at the 2021 housing activity and what happened in our local market in 2021, kind of what's happening so far in 2022. And just comparing it to years past and, and highlighting the fact that this is a serious challenge that we face with housing. Now, the city will be coming out with a housing study, in the next few weeks or months, or sometime here soon that the docking Institute is performed. And that will dig into more of the long-term aspects, it'll look at population trends and that type of thing. And, and our, our report will do a little bit of that, but it'll be more time specific to what's going on right now. And, and in the immediate past. Whereas the housing studies typically look at, you've got this many people in your community, you've got this many homes, if you grow at this rate, you need to build X number of homes and, and that's all valuable information. But it may not be completely applicable to what's going on right at this instant. And so ours is going to look a little closer at that, and try and identify exactly what's happening right now where our shortfalls are and what challenges that's producing because it is producing some significant challenges locally.

If I remember correctly, the number was hh 14 houses for sale and I was counting.

The other day when I checked, there were 12. And five of them were in excess of $499,000. So really seven houses, so seven houses. And so the problem with like reports that look back as an example of Wichita State provides the local real estate, realtors with data. And it will tell you that at the end of last year, there were 40 homes available. Well, the metric they use is either active or active under contract. So at any one time, there may be 20 to 30 homes in our community under contract waiting to be sold or closed. But that doesn't mean somebody coming in today who's going to go out and they want to relocate here and they want to go out and look at homes, they've got basically seven to look at unless they want to spend over $500,000. Now that doesn't count for sale by owners and some things like that. And there are some of those, this is just Multiplus data. But the bottom line is we just don't have any inventory at all. And that's one of the reasons why we're working feverishly out in our Tallgrass edition, you know, with getting some homes built, because for every home out there that's built potentially, somebody buys that and it frees up their house becomes available on comes on the market. And so we have to add inventory that way, and we've got 10 of them under construction out there right now.

There's a pretty long waitlist for those already isn't there?

There's a lot of interest, I'm not sure. The builders, I'm not sure they're really wanting to sell them right away when they're under construction, because that creates a whole set of circumstances where that becomes kind of a custom home. And when you're building at that price point, it's very difficult to do a custom home for that where you start having people that want to change where this wall is, or add this or do this differently. And it becomes much more labor-intensive for the builder. So they're resisting, I think, to some extent, selling them ahead of time. But there's tremendous interest. I've had them tell me 20 3040 people have expressed interest and wanted and, and so we've got 10 under construction, and I think we'll have another 12 Under Construction within 30 to 60 days. So I'm hopeful by year-end, we could have 25 homes available out there and be working on the next phase, which is the streets and the sewer and the water and that kind of thing for the next phase, which would be another 27 to 35 Lots.

Wow. Yeah, that'll help. And there's and we talked a little bit about this last week, too. There's some development up north going on private development, as well as I think over-analysis or some homes going up and in a program over there as well. Right.

Well, we're working on some of those, but there are Ellis estates, I believe that's 40, 32 or 40 units that are going up as an addition to that development and we're still working on our concept for the retiree community north of the hospital on that large tract of ground at that location and, and we feel like that will serve a very critical demographic of 55 and older community. So we have a number of we have an aging population If we don't cater to them with housing solutions for their needs, they're going to go someplace else. And so we want to make sure that we retain those people as well as be attractive to people that are looking to relocate from rural communities, communities or urban areas, that we've got good solutions and housing, it really does all start with housing. If you don't have that, you just can't go on to the next step. You can't recruit, retain or recruit a workforce, you've got to have housing. And so that's why we spend so much time working on it.

Okay, Doug, we've got under a couple of minutes left, but I know you've got an article coming out or an article that you're going to send to a he's post anyway, want to talk a little bit about that.

I'll talk a little bit about that. And it's certainly nothing earth-shattering, but it goes to this concept of what we need to be doing here and growth. And I hear a lot of people come to me, I have friends and that kind of thing we like he's just the way it is. And the title of the article is we have to grow to stay the same. And my point in the article is simply our trade area is shrinking. And we're growing at a dismal pace and haze, you know, point one 7% per year, the last from 2010 to 2020. We're not keeping pace currently with even what we're losing in our trade area. So as a community, we have to be really focused on growing our community at a minimum faster than we're losing people in the outlying areas. Now, some of those people are moving here and that kind of thing. And that's all fine. But we need to be cognizant that, you know, Nothing ever stays the same. But in this particular case, if we want to attract new retail, and we want to keep the retail we have and we want to keep a lot of the things that we currently have. We have no choice but to grow and to pick up the pace a little bit and what we have done in the last 10 years. And so we're really focused on that. And that's another reason why housing is so important.

<div><iframe title="More housing vital to the long term economic health of Ellis County" allowtransparency="true" height="300" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=xvnef-119ad21-pb&from=pb6admin&square=1&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=3267a3&font-color=ffffff&btn-skin=3267a3&size=300" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>On this episode of the Post Podcast, Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams shares the latest from Grow Hays.<h2> Transcript</h2>James Bell&nbsp;The economic future of Ellis County is up to all of us, Grow Hays executive director, Doug Williams stops by to talk a little bit about some of the initiatives going on in the area concerning economic development on this episode of the Post Podcast.&nbsp; The first one I think we want to talk about, and this was this is topical, this came up last night at the city commission work session, they're talking about a sales tax initiative, as part of their bond issue you want to, before we get into it, just tell everybody a little bit if they don't know what what this entails,Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;Well, obviously, the USD 49 is exploring the possibility of a bond issue to build new schools or improve the schools we have. And there are a couple of ways they can pay for that they can do a bond issue, and that can be levied via property tax, or they can do a combination of property tax, and also, with the city's permission, and with the voters' approval, put it out a portion of it on a sales tax. And so they were approaching the city of Hayes about the concept of a half a cent sales tax locally, within the city of Hays or 49. District, I'm not sure exactly how that works. But that would be a half-cent sales tax levied for 10 years. And the proceeds from that sales tax would go towards retiring the bond issue, along with property tax and that kind of thing. And they illustrated what the property tax would be on a typical home in Hays with the sales tax in place, and then without the sales tax in place.James Bell&nbsp;Correct me if I'm wrong, but they tried to do this on the bond issue about eight years ago as well. Right. And if I remember correctly, the sales tax piece did pass it but the Bond didn't.Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;Right. And so it was moot at that point? Because you've with this one the way they explained it last night and I don't want to steal USD 49 stander, I know they come on here as well. But I'm sure we'll be talking the way they explained it last night was it if the sales tax would pass and the bond issue wouldn't, the sales tax would not go into effect. If the bond issue passed, and the sales tax did not the bond issue would still pass and be carried out. And they would build the new schools and make the improvements and that type of thing. So but the sales tax would be conditioned upon the bond passing? Sure.James Bell&nbsp;Now, I think we've talked about this enough in the past, I think both of us I think our opinions are pretty clear that generally, whether it be this bond or a different bond or some way or another, we're going to have to fix those facilities. But what I'm curious about is your thoughts on is the sales tax, a good way to do that? Because I think about the trade area or the 1.7 pull or pull factor that we have for the local economy. I wonder, do you think of that impacts that?Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;I think it is a good way to do it? Does it impact that maybe a little bit. But if you look, the thing you have to look at is regionally how our sales tax compares to other places where people would go and shop. And we're right in line, even with a half a percent bump, we were below our peer communities in western Kansas, in central Kansas, before the city, the county passed their half-cent sales tax that took it from 8.25 to 8.75. This would take it from 8.75 to nine and a quarter. Still within the norm of communities our size, so I don't see a lot of harm in that. And it would soften the blow for the property taxpayers have within USD 489. So I think it's a good way to do it. There will be some complaints from remote areas and local areas. You know, I I just because it's a sales tax doesn't mean you're not going to pay something, you're just gonna pay it in smaller increments and that kind of thing. And so but that, you know, as we've talked many times before, and we will many times in the future until this is playing itself out. We have kicked the can down the road as far as we can kick it in regard to our schools, and we have to do something. And this is a good way to do it. It makes it more affordable for the typical taxpayer. And, and it does spread the cost of those schools over some other communities of which, you know, when we pay our state property taxes here, we pay for other community schools because they get some funding that we don't. So it's not like we're picking on everybody from out of town. We're just kind of leveling the playing field. And I think Ron Wilson pointed that out last night.James Bell&nbsp;Okay. You know, I think about too, you know, part of the discussions that I've heard is, you know, the facilities, we don't have the facilities we need to do, you know, tournaments and things where we'd bring groups of people in and those kinds of events. You know, they do have a regional impact. I think about people stopping for gas in Russell or walking on the way here, hopefully, they spend their money here. But you know, they're going to some of those folks hit those little towns coming into Hays.Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;They are and then more people we get into the community for all types of events, the better, you know, potentially fills up hotel rooms that people buy gas, they buy dinner, they maybe go and buy things at Walmart to the mall or wherever they shop and Home Depot. So activity generates additional dollars and facilities help that for sure. And then just the general overcrowding situations we have within our schools right now, you know, we're over capacity in a couple of them. And, and, and the fact that the way people, the way teachers teach and the way kids learn today is much different than the traditional classrooms. And unfortunately, we're still stuck in that traditional classroom mode because of the facilities we have. But yeah, I think I think all of that would add to economic activity for the area.James Bell&nbsp;Yeah. And we talked about this in the past, I mean, the economic impact to these bonds is is huge, both on the front end of the people, we can't get into Hayes, because of the status of the facilities or the way that they look. And, you know, into the future, that workforce, the how that all comes together into one thing, and it's all not good if we can't get people here?Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;Well, exactly. It's a key component of our economy and our local community. And, you know, we have to make investments. And as I said, Didn't will continue to say, in my opinion, the cost of not passing a bond is far greater than the cost of the bond itself. And I think if we look at what the consequences are if we don't pass a bond and improve our schools, we will suffer accordingly. And it's harder to quantify for sure. But we will suffer and we will end up, in the long run, paying more than what we're paying for the actual bond term.James Bell&nbsp;&nbsp;Now, I know I imagine one that this is going to be one of the topics of conversation of this town hall that's coming up on Monday, the Imagine Ellis County, town hall, right, get the right word. But that's gonna be an opportunity for folks to come in and talk about issues like this, right?Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;It is, Imagine Ellis County was formed to try and take a look at Dallas County, what we want to look like in 510 2030 years, and to identify areas where we may have some challenges and as well as identify our strengths. And we have spent some time talking to business owners and community leaders, organization leaders as to what their challenges are, and, and obviously, educational facilities come up all the time, as does housing, as does childcare, and workforce and all of those things. But now, we're trying to engage the community members to see if they have any specific thoughts and ideas, basically. And so that's what our town hall meeting is about. We want to share what we have found from the business community and the organizations we have talked to, and then also get feedback from community members as to what they would like to see what their vision might be. And put those two together. So this is our first town hall meeting, we plan to try and have them in Victoria analysis in the coming months. And then we're putting out a community survey this summer, that will try and address some of these issues and get input from the community. And so we're kicking it all off Monday evening from 530 to eight o'clock at the Hilton Garden Inn. And we would like great attendance, we need feedback. So I encourage anybody to attend, we'd like you to register at either our imagine Ellis County Facebook page, we've got a link or the Grow Hayes, Facebook page, or call us or what have you. If you don't get registered, that doesn't mean we don't want you to come because we would like you to come out as well. But we're trying to get a headcount because we're going to feed you.James Bell&nbsp;Hey, do you know how many people have signed up already?Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;I think we're somewhere between 40 and 50. Maybe know something not bad. But we'd love to get 100 people there, we really would we want feedback, the more the better. And you know, no ideas necessarily too small or too crazy. We're trying to keep you know, a blank slate and see what we can come up with. So I would encourage anybody that has an interest in Ellis County in our future to come out and offer their input.James Bell&nbsp;Yeah, this is a wonderful opportunity to do so because I can't have you know, all the places I've been over the last, you know, 25 or so years of my professional life. I don't ever remember a community doing something like this, like asking people to come together and tell us what do you want our community to be? And I think that's just huge. And I hope that a lot of people take advantage of this and just breaking down the doors come Monday night to share their ideas and thoughts.Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;Well, we hope so too. You know, I think it's important that we get feedback and that people get to give us their thoughts and their ideas as opposed to you know later on saying, well, nobody asked me what we're asking, you know, we want to know. So hope, more people, a lot of people can come out and we look forward to a productive session Monday night.James Bell&nbsp;Very cool. And the other thing we want to talk about we hit this up a little bit last week, I think, well, I should, I think it was our main topic of conversation, the housing report that's coming up, you've set a date on that, I believe, of the 15th, that's coming out, right? That's correct.Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;And I don't want to oversell this, it scares me a little bit that we've talked about it too much. But this is our just our look at the 2021 housing activity and what happened in our local market in 2021, kind of what's happening so far in 2022. And just comparing it to years past and, and highlighting the fact that this is a serious challenge that we face with housing. Now, the city will be coming out with a housing study, in the next few weeks or months, or sometime here soon that the docking Institute is performed. And that will dig into more of the long-term aspects, it'll look at population trends and that type of thing. And, and our, our report will do a little bit of that, but it'll be more time specific to what's going on right now. And, and in the immediate past. Whereas the housing studies typically look at, you've got this many people in your community, you've got this many homes, if you grow at this rate, you need to build X number of homes and, and that's all valuable information. But it may not be completely applicable to what's going on right at this instant. And so ours is going to look a little closer at that, and try and identify exactly what's happening right now where our shortfalls are and what challenges that's producing because it is producing some significant challenges locally.James Bell&nbsp;If I remember correctly, the number was hh 14 houses for sale and I was counting.Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;The other day when I checked, there were 12. And five of them were in excess of $499,000. So really seven houses, so seven houses. And so the problem with like reports that look back as an example of Wichita State provides the local real estate, realtors with data. And it will tell you that at the end of last year, there were 40 homes available. Well, the metric they use is either active or active under contract. So at any one time, there may be 20 to 30 homes in our community under contract waiting to be sold or closed. But that doesn't mean somebody coming in today who's going to go out and they want to relocate here and they want to go out and look at homes, they've got basically seven to look at unless they want to spend over $500,000. Now that doesn't count for sale by owners and some things like that. And there are some of those, this is just Multiplus data. But the bottom line is we just don't have any inventory at all. And that's one of the reasons why we're working feverishly out in our Tallgrass edition, you know, with getting some homes built, because for every home out there that's built potentially, somebody buys that and it frees up their house becomes available on comes on the market. And so we have to add inventory that way, and we've got 10 of them under construction out there right now.James Bell&nbsp;There's a pretty long waitlist for those already isn't there?Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;There's a lot of interest, I'm not sure. The builders, I'm not sure they're really wanting to sell them right away when they're under construction, because that creates a whole set of circumstances where that becomes kind of a custom home. And when you're building at that price point, it's very difficult to do a custom home for that where you start having people that want to change where this wall is, or add this or do this differently. And it becomes much more labor-intensive for the builder. So they're resisting, I think, to some extent, selling them ahead of time. But there's tremendous interest. I've had them tell me 20 3040 people have expressed interest and wanted and, and so we've got 10 under construction, and I think we'll have another 12 Under Construction within 30 to 60 days. So I'm hopeful by year-end, we could have 25 homes available out there and be working on the next phase, which is the streets and the sewer and the water and that kind of thing for the next phase, which would be another 27 to 35 Lots.James Bell&nbsp;Wow. Yeah, that'll help. And there's and we talked a little bit about this last week, too. There's some development up north going on private development, as well as I think over-analysis or some homes going up and in a program over there as well. Right.Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;Well, we're working on some of those, but there are Ellis estates, I believe that's 40, 32 or 40 units that are going up as an addition to that development and we're still working on our concept for the retiree community north of the hospital on that large tract of ground at that location and, and we feel like that will serve a very critical demographic of 55 and older community. So we have a number of we have an aging population If we don't cater to them with housing solutions for their needs, they're going to go someplace else. And so we want to make sure that we retain those people as well as be attractive to people that are looking to relocate from rural communities, communities or urban areas, that we've got good solutions and housing, it really does all start with housing. If you don't have that, you just can't go on to the next step. You can't recruit, retain or recruit a workforce, you've got to have housing. And so that's why we spend so much time working on it.James Bell&nbsp;Okay, Doug, we've got under a couple of minutes left, but I know you've got an article coming out or an article that you're going to send to a he's post anyway, want to talk a little bit about that.Grow Hays executive director Doug Williams&nbsp;I'll talk a little bit about that. And it's certainly nothing earth-shattering, but it goes to this concept of what we need to be doing here and growth. And I hear a lot of people come to me, I have friends and that kind of thing we like he's just the way it is. And the title of the article is we have to grow to stay the same. And my point in the article is simply our trade area is shrinking. And we're growing at a dismal pace and haze, you know, point one 7% per year, the last from 2010 to 2020. We're not keeping pace currently with even what we're losing in our trade area. So as a community, we have to be really focused on growing our community at a minimum faster than we're losing people in the outlying areas. Now, some of those people are moving here and that kind of thing. And that's all fine. But we need to be cognizant that, you know, Nothing ever stays the same. But in this particular case, if we want to attract new retail, and we want to keep the retail we have and we want to keep a lot of the things that we currently have. We have no choice but to grow and to pick up the pace a little bit and what we have done in the last 10 years. And so we're really focused on that. And that's another reason why housing is so important.

🎙Post Podcast: Housing vital to the long-term economic health of Ellis Co.

Grow Hays, the Ellis County economic development organization, will soon release its annual housing report detailing the good and bad of the
housing market in the county.

Once again, the report is expected to show a challenging home market.

“As of this morning, in the MLS, there are 20 homes in Ellis
County for sale, there's 12 in Hays, and five of those 12 are priced at over
$499,000,” Grow Hays Executive Director Doug Williams said on Friday. “So it
doesn't take very long to figure out that we have some issues with housing.”

While the available housing inventory will likely be the
most notable information to be released in the report, it will also share other
key indicators of the area market.

“We report on the number of building permits that were
issued, the number of new homes, new multifamily projects, and that type of
thing and, and that'll provide some additional information for people,” Williams
said.

He said the report paints a grim picture for
the county as potential residents struggle to find a home.

“Just imagine yourself as somebody who's moving to town — a
new college professor or a new health care provider at Hays Medical Center — and you go out looking for homes, and you have virtually nothing to choose from,”
Williams said. “That’s a problem.

“And so that's why we're always talking about that from an
economic development standpoint, because economic development, a huge part of
that is workforce. And if there's no housing for a workforce, you've got some
real challenges to deal with.”

Efforts are underway to increase the housing inventory, but
Williams said no solution will be able to resolve the situation quickly.

“This is kind of a perfect storm of events, we dug ourselves
a hole over the last 10 years by not bringing enough new inventory onto the
market, not building enough new homes, not enough new apartments and that type
of thing,” he said.

Continued growth in the county has also depleted the number
of available homes, even as new homes were being built.

“I can tell you when you go from two years ago, over 100
homes for sale in the Hays MLS, to today with 12. … We have had some growth, and
we're not keeping up with it.”

Moving into the future, Williams said, “this is a serious
issue that we have to address.”

Along with the overall shortage, he said having inventory
available can also ensure area residents are in the right home for their needs.

“We don't have appropriate housing for various lifestyles or
stages of life,” Williams said. “Like seniors, they want all on one level and
some things like that, if we don't have that they're gonna stay put in maybe
that three, four or five-bedroom home that could be on the market and appeal to
a family moving into town.”

Homes that would be prime “fixer-uppers” are also not being
remodeled, as the inventory is so tight, they remain in their current states,
he said.

“The problem is that the market is so tight, that people will
rent anything,” Williams said. “So those homes that would traditionally go into
(the Grow Hays housing rehabilitation program) are being rented out in most
cases because they can and so the ability to find a rehab home has never been
more challenging than it is right now.”

As a growing number of people living in urban areas are
looking to shift to more rural environments, Williams said Hays could be in a
prime position to grow Ellis County with residents from the Kansas City and
Denver metropolitan areas. But, without homes, Ellis County is losing a prime opportunity
to secure the economic future of the area.

“We need to be better positioned to capture more of that because many of these are remote workers,” he said. “And remote workers have
good jobs, they just choose not to live in the metro area. And so if we can
capture a bigger share that then we're getting right now that's good for our
community. We bring in people with good jobs.

“And it's almost like exporting products where we become an
exporter of those services that they provide for those companies they work for,
but they spend their money in Hays. They buy homes, they buy cars, they buy
groceries and all of those types of things. And we need as many of those
people as we can get.”

Despite the anticipated housing report showing the
difficulties in the market in the last year, moving into 2022, Williams said
there are a number of positive initiatives underway.

“(The) number of building permits
that were issued for single-family homes in 2021 (was) not a record but
higher than it has been in a long time," he said.&nbsp;

He also touted the ongoing Heart of America housing development
near 22nd and Wheatland in Hays.

“We've got 36 lots in phase one. We have 10 homes under
construction as we speak, another eight will be started sometime in the next 30
to 60 days,” Williams said. “And I'm very confident there'll be 20 to 25 homes
completed in that development by year-end. There's huge interest in the homes
that are being constructed.”

Ellis Estates is expanding, he said, which will add 30 to 40 senior
housing homes to the market.

“Still a ways away, but that's happening,” Williams
said.

Home construction is also ongoing in the Tallgrass II and
the Kingsgate second addition, he said.

“So, we are adding some things and there's some activity
going on, just not at the pace we really need to be,” Williams said.

The 2021 housing report from Grow Hays is expected to be
available by Feb. 15 and will be available to the public on the <a href="https://www.growhays.com/">Grow Hays website</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GrowHays/">facebook page.</a>

<div><iframe title="Upcoming report to highlight ongoing housing shortage in Ellis Co." allowtransparency="true" height="300" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=p2dd6-1193f02-pb&from=pb6admin&square=1&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=3267a3&font-color=ffffff&btn-skin=3267a3&size=300" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>By JAMES BELL 
Hays PostGrow Hays, the Ellis County economic development organization, will soon release its annual housing report detailing the good and bad of the
housing market in the county.Once again, the report is expected to show a challenging home market.“As of this morning, in the MLS, there are 20 homes in Ellis
County for sale, there's 12 in Hays, and five of those 12 are priced at over
$499,000,” Grow Hays Executive Director Doug Williams said on Friday. “So it
doesn't take very long to figure out that we have some issues with housing.”While the available housing inventory will likely be the
most notable information to be released in the report, it will also share other
key indicators of the area market.“We report on the number of building permits that were
issued, the number of new homes, new multifamily projects, and that type of
thing and, and that'll provide some additional information for people,” Williams
said.He said the report paints a grim picture for
the county as potential residents struggle to find a home.“Just imagine yourself as somebody who's moving to town — a
new college professor or a new health care provider at Hays Medical Center — and you go out looking for homes, and you have virtually nothing to choose from,”
Williams said. “That’s a problem.“And so that's why we're always talking about that from an
economic development standpoint, because economic development, a huge part of
that is workforce. And if there's no housing for a workforce, you've got some
real challenges to deal with.”Efforts are underway to increase the housing inventory, but
Williams said no solution will be able to resolve the situation quickly.“This is kind of a perfect storm of events, we dug ourselves
a hole over the last 10 years by not bringing enough new inventory onto the
market, not building enough new homes, not enough new apartments and that type
of thing,” he said.Continued growth in the county has also depleted the number
of available homes, even as new homes were being built.“I can tell you when you go from two years ago, over 100
homes for sale in the Hays MLS, to today with 12. … We have had some growth, and
we're not keeping up with it.”Moving into the future, Williams said, “this is a serious
issue that we have to address.”Along with the overall shortage, he said having inventory
available can also ensure area residents are in the right home for their needs.“We don't have appropriate housing for various lifestyles or
stages of life,” Williams said. “Like seniors, they want all on one level and
some things like that, if we don't have that they're gonna stay put in maybe
that three, four or five-bedroom home that could be on the market and appeal to
a family moving into town.”Homes that would be prime “fixer-uppers” are also not being
remodeled, as the inventory is so tight, they remain in their current states,
he said.“The problem is that the market is so tight, that people will
rent anything,” Williams said. “So those homes that would traditionally go into
(the Grow Hays housing rehabilitation program) are being rented out in most
cases because they can and so the ability to find a rehab home has never been
more challenging than it is right now.”<h2>Lost Opportunities</h2>As a growing number of people living in urban areas are
looking to shift to more rural environments, Williams said Hays could be in a
prime position to grow Ellis County with residents from the Kansas City and
Denver metropolitan areas. But, without homes, Ellis County is losing a prime opportunity
to secure the economic future of the area.“We need to be better positioned to capture more of that because many of these are remote workers,” he said. “And remote workers have
good jobs, they just choose not to live in the metro area. And so if we can
capture a bigger share that then we're getting right now that's good for our
community. We bring in people with good jobs.“And it's almost like exporting products where we become an
exporter of those services that they provide for those companies they work for,
but they spend their money in Hays. They buy homes, they buy cars, they buy
groceries and all of those types of things. And we need as many of those
people as we can get.”<h2>The turn</h2>Despite the anticipated housing report showing the
difficulties in the market in the last year, moving into 2022, Williams said
there are a number of positive initiatives underway.“(The) number of building permits
that were issued for single-family homes in 2021 (was) not a record but
higher than it has been in a long time," he said.&nbsp;He also touted the ongoing Heart of America housing development
near 22nd and Wheatland in Hays.“We've got 36 lots in phase one. We have 10 homes under
construction as we speak, another eight will be started sometime in the next 30
to 60 days,” Williams said. “And I'm very confident there'll be 20 to 25 homes
completed in that development by year-end. There's huge interest in the homes
that are being constructed.”Ellis Estates is expanding, he said, which will add 30 to 40 senior
housing homes to the market.“Still a ways away, but that's happening,” Williams
said.Home construction is also ongoing in the Tallgrass II and
the Kingsgate second addition, he said.“So, we are adding some things and there's some activity
going on, just not at the pace we really need to be,” Williams said.The 2021 housing report from Grow Hays is expected to be
available by Feb. 15 and will be available to the public on the <a href="https://www.growhays.com/">Grow Hays website</a> and <a href="https://www.facebook.com/GrowHays/">facebook page.</a>Cover image courtesy Pixabay

🎙Upcoming report to highlight ongoing housing shortage in Ellis Co.

Saturday area legislators, including U.S. Sen. Roger
Marshall, R.-Kan.; Kansas Sen. Rick Billinger, R-Goodland; Kansas
Rep. Ken Rahjes, R-Agra; and Kansas Rep. Barb Wasinger, R-Hays, are set to join area residents in Hays for the first
of three Legislative Coffee sessions organized by the Hays Chamber.

“I look forward to the opportunity to speak with Kansans and
learn more about the issues and concerns impacting their lives,”&nbsp;Marshall
said in a press release earlier this week.&nbsp;“I value the opportunity to
hear directly from folks in Ellis County so that I can take their stories and
concerns with me when I return to Washington, D.C.”

The event will begin at 8 a.m. in the Schmidt Community
Commons at the Hays Public Library, 1205 Main, with coffee and scones served by Breathe
Coffee House, 703B Main. Questions will begin at 8:30 a.m.

“Usually, we give folks a chance to enjoy the coffee and scones
provided by brief Coffee House for that first half-hour, " said Hays Chamber President and CEO Sarah Wasinger. "And then if folks want
to talk one on one with the legislators, or each other, that's kind of a good
avenue for them to do that.”

The recently remodeled Hays Public Library was a good fit for the discussions, she said.

“We were excited when Sarah approached us about hosting
Legislative Coffee, for the venue,” said Callie Kolacny, Hays Public Library communications coordinator. “One of our missions is information. And what better way to be
informed about what's going on in the government than to give people a place to
come and actually speak with our elected officials?”

With the central location of the library in downtown Hays, she said she hopes for a good turnout.

“We really hope to get a good crowd and have a lot of people
come in and speak with the elected officials, because it's a great opportunity,
and we're happy to be able to provide the location,” Kolacny said.

The event is sponsored by Midwest Energy and the Hays Daily News.


Questions to the legislators can be asked in person or can
be submitted in advance to the Hays Chamber at <a href="mailto:sarah@hayschamber.com">sarah@hayschamber.com</a>.

“If you have questions specific to any of those folks, or
just questions that you want to ask, in general, by all means, let us know,”
Wasinger said. “If you're a little nervous as to raise your hand to ask a
question or things of that nature, you can ask questions anonymously.”

She said questions can also be forwarded to individual legislators
as well.

After opening remarks from the legislators, Wasinger said
the session will be opened to questions, followed by closing remarks.

Two more Legislative Coffees are scheduled on the first Saturday
of the month — March 5 and April 2.

Wasinger said she hopes the sessions help create a stronger
working relationship between the legislators and the public.

"(There is) no better way to really understand the legislative
process than to put yourself into a situation where you can comfortably
interact with your legislators one on one or in a bigger group setting,” Wasinger
said. “This is their home too. And I think a lot of times people sometimes
maybe forget that they live work and play here and in Kansas just as we do, and
so they've got a vested buy-in to make sure that they're addressing the issues
that are important to the constituents in which they represent.”

<a href="https://hayschamber.com/events/legislative-coffee-2">For
more information about the Legislative Coffee, visit the Hays Chamber website,
hayschamber.com.</a>

<figure>
 <img src="https://media.eaglewebservices.com/public/2020/1/1578606002336.jpeg" alt="" />
 <figcaption></figcaption>
 </figure>By JAMES BELL Hays PostSaturday area legislators, including U.S. Sen. Roger
Marshall, R.-Kan.; Kansas Sen. Rick Billinger, R-Goodland; Kansas
Rep. Ken Rahjes, R-Agra; and Kansas Rep. Barb Wasinger, R-Hays, are set to join area residents in Hays for the first
of three Legislative Coffee sessions organized by the Hays Chamber.“I look forward to the opportunity to speak with Kansans and
learn more about the issues and concerns impacting their lives,”&nbsp;Marshall
said in a press release earlier this week.&nbsp;“I value the opportunity to
hear directly from folks in Ellis County so that I can take their stories and
concerns with me when I return to Washington, D.C.”The event will begin at 8 a.m. in the Schmidt Community
Commons at the Hays Public Library, 1205 Main, with coffee and scones served by Breathe
Coffee House, 703B Main. Questions will begin at 8:30 a.m.<div><iframe title="Area leaders to gather in Hays for Legislative Coffee" allowtransparency="true" height="300" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=v3s2u-1195d7e-pb&from=pb6admin&square=1&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=3267a3&font-color=ffffff&btn-skin=3267a3&size=300" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>“Usually, we give folks a chance to enjoy the coffee and scones
provided by brief Coffee House for that first half-hour, " said Hays Chamber President and CEO Sarah Wasinger. "And then if folks want
to talk one on one with the legislators, or each other, that's kind of a good
avenue for them to do that.”The recently remodeled Hays Public Library was a good fit for the discussions, she said.“We were excited when Sarah approached us about hosting
Legislative Coffee, for the venue,” said Callie Kolacny, Hays Public Library communications coordinator. “One of our missions is information. And what better way to be
informed about what's going on in the government than to give people a place to
come and actually speak with our elected officials?”With the central location of the library in downtown Hays, she said she hopes for a good turnout.“We really hope to get a good crowd and have a lot of people
come in and speak with the elected officials, because it's a great opportunity,
and we're happy to be able to provide the location,” Kolacny said.The event is sponsored by Midwest Energy and the Hays Daily News.
Questions to the legislators can be asked in person or can
be submitted in advance to the Hays Chamber at <a href="mailto:sarah@hayschamber.com">sarah@hayschamber.com</a>.“If you have questions specific to any of those folks, or
just questions that you want to ask, in general, by all means, let us know,”
Wasinger said. “If you're a little nervous as to raise your hand to ask a
question or things of that nature, you can ask questions anonymously.”She said questions can also be forwarded to individual legislators
as well.After opening remarks from the legislators, Wasinger said
the session will be opened to questions, followed by closing remarks.Two more Legislative Coffees are scheduled on the first Saturday
of the month — March 5 and April 2.Wasinger said she hopes the sessions help create a stronger
working relationship between the legislators and the public."(There is) no better way to really understand the legislative
process than to put yourself into a situation where you can comfortably
interact with your legislators one on one or in a bigger group setting,” Wasinger
said. “This is their home too. And I think a lot of times people sometimes
maybe forget that they live work and play here and in Kansas just as we do, and
so they've got a vested buy-in to make sure that they're addressing the issues
that are important to the constituents in which they represent.”<a href="https://hayschamber.com/events/legislative-coffee-2">For
more information about the Legislative Coffee, visit the Hays Chamber website,
hayschamber.com.</a> Cover image courtesy Pixabay