By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
In late March, the city of Hays and its Convention and Visitors Bureau welcomed the annual Kansas Mission of Mercy, the free dental clinic sponsored by Kansas Dental Charitable Foundation.
It was the first time the two-day event was hosted in Hays.
"To cover expenses for the event, $159,000 in funds was raised," Asst. City Manager Collin Bielser told the city commission during their meeting last week.
"Approximately 526 patients were seen, resulting in 471 fillings and over 1,500 extractions occurred," Bielser said, "for a donated service value of $673,000."
More than 500 lay people volunteered at KMOM, including nursing students from Fort Hays State University and NCK Technical College, as well as NCK Tech plumbing and electrical students.
RELATED: READ HAYS POST COVERAGE OF KMOM
Bielser also talked about recent activities of the parks department as spring weather returns.
Parks department employees work year-round to keep existing trees in good health and also plant or transplant new trees on city property throughout town.
A professional contractor was recently hired to trim dead limbs off 21 trees along Chetolah Draw between 22nd Street and Centennial.
"They actually took out two dead and hazardous trees," Bielser said. "City staff collected all the downed branches - 18 truckloads were hauled away."
During last week's Arbor Day observation, Hays received a "Tree City USA" award from the national Arbor Day Foundation for the 43rd consecutive year.
Parks Director Jeff Boyle was also recognized with the inaugural "Jim Strine Community Forestry Award" by the Kansas Forestry Service. A resident of Hays, Strine was a longtime Kansas State District Forester who passed away in January.
Workers also transplanted 104 seedlings in the city's tree nursery east of Canterbury Drive.
More recent projects and programs conducted by city departments are noted in Collins' report below.