Police will be training Friday morning

Arkansas City Police will be conducting a drill Friday morning, starting at 7 and lasting until about 10. The area will be around the police station and city hall. The drill is part of the Child Abduction Response Team. Ark City PD is getting certified by national and state officials.
Ark City police, Fire and EMS, Winfield Police, Sheriff, Highway patrol, will be participating in a mock amber alert situation.
The purpose is to make sure agencies are able to respond adequately if a real situation should arise.
So there should be a lot of cop activity around town in the morning. Its just a drill.

Work session meeting

Hike-Bike Path and City Commission

Looks like the hike and bike trail is finally going to become a reality. A letter in the City Commission packet, from the Kansas Dept of Transportation, says the state will pay all the cost of the project. The city's share was to have been $500,000. The state was going to pay part of it anyway, but these are some Obama Stimulus Package funds being spread around.
It is already out to bid, and big opening is set for Oct. 22, and the city could give approval at its first meeting in November. There really isnt anything for the city to do at this point, but they still have to give the OK to letting the state pick up the tab.

Here are the items on the agenda for Thursday's worksession. Worksession is at 5:30 p.m., I will have the live blog going.

1. Good neighbor award to Curt Freeland
2. Special assessment on various properties for weed cutting and removal of junk and debris.
3. Consider request to withdraw petition for rezoning on Kansas Ave., from business to industrial.
4. Agreement for wastewater discharge from Kan Pak
5. Consider purchase of 33 acres from AC Industries in the Goff Industrial Park.

Exploring Oklahoma

We went on one of our spontaneous trips again, this time to Oklahoma to explore Route 66. We had planned on going a few weeks ago but somehow didn't go, and this last weekend seemed like a good time.
This is the "mother road" .. the famous road between Chicago and California. When it was done in 1926 it was the only road in the country that went across country - even though it was only halfway across.
Driving must have been quiet an experience back then. It is interesting to look at some maps from that time and earlier. Some were not accurate, some were intentionally misleading and at times you could have maps that showed different things.
You may still drive on parts of the original 66. One part in northeast oklahoma, has the original surface from 1926. It is only 8 feet wide. I know cars were smaller then, but .. must have been interesting at times. Probably wasn't all that much traffic anyway. Other areas the strip is wider.  The road also took up trails and used them at times. The Ozark Trail was used in eastern Oklahoma.

The road follows what is now Interstate 40 a lot, but there are still those old areas where you can drive the original road. Some of the old hotels and restaurants are still around as well. Its not that hard to tell the difference between the real things and  those things that try to be real.
The road went through the very southeast corner of Kansas near Baxter Springs. We started there and went as far as Oklahoma City, which took three days.

Free speech isnt so free ?

The Supreme Court will be hearing a case next week involving the Phelps crew up in Topeka. They lost a lawsuit a couple years ago and it is making its way through the appeals process.
As bad and evil as those people are, it still raises interesting questions about freedom of speech.
There is something to the idea that a military funeral is private and a special thing, so there could be exceptions made.. but where do you stop the exceptions.
Here is a paragraph from an AP story

The trouble is, once courts begin making exceptions of this sort, the First Amendment quickly gets whittled away. There are those who argue for creating free-speech exceptions for Nazis marching through the town square or for the burning of holy books of one sort or another. Almost everyone has some kind of speech they regard as intolerable - they just do not agree on what that speech is. 

Here is a link to the story.

I think the speech itself should be protected, but you do have conflicting rights at times. Such is the nature of freedom. Even though speech should be protected, there should not be protection from the repercussions of utilizing that freedom.  I would still be against any hate speech law of any kind. 

Life after the Walnut Valley

Sorry i've not posted much the last few days. Still recovering from the Walnut Valley Festival I suppose. I stayed up there a lot and didn't sleep much. All that music needs listening to. :)
Ive also had some computer troubles but I think Its ok now. Got a new machine. Hopefully it will last a long time. I got four years out of the old one and it was used and abused heavily.

I was reading about some canoe trails in Texas. It was pretty interesting, and there is a group trying to create more trails there. Now it doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that if you are paddling down a river, it's not real hard to know which way to go and its highly unlikely that you would make a wrong turn in your canoe. (there are some places where you could, but ...)
The thing it does is promote river use in that area. There are trails like this in many other places - Minnesota has hundreds of miles of them - Louisiana and other states. I think there are even some in Kansas.
Does not seem like it would be too hard to do that here.

There is a lot that could be done, but just need some people willing to get involved.
Car show is this weekend. I think im going to be out of town, but it should be good.

Shooting at Walmart

Sorry Im a bit late with this. Here is the police report on the shooting in the Walmart parking lot over the weekend. There's more cop stuff below.

On 09-18-2010 at about 4:11pm, officers of the Arkansas City Police Department responded to the report of gunshots in the parking lot of Wal-Mart.  Upon officers arrival they found Justin
Tong and Sean Rethmeier in the parking lot, both suffering gunshot wounds.  Justin Tong had been struck in the right side of his torso, and was transported to the South Central Kansas Regional Medical Center by Arkansas City Fire and EMS.  Tong was later transported to Wesley Medical Center by helicopter.  Tong underwent surgery in Wichita and is expected to recover from the injury.  Rethmeier had been struck in the left hand and was taken to South Central Regional Medical Center, where he was treated and later released.

Shooting

Ark City Police are investigating a shooting at Walmart in Arkansas City.
TV Channel 12 is saying Sean Wallace said the shooting may have been accidental, but they are still investigating.
One person was taken to a Wichita hospital.

Bulldogs

Packed house tonight at the opening of Bulldog Stadium.
The first game is not going so well though as the Bulldogs trail Goddard 32-0 late in the third quarter.
Im headed back to the walnut valley festival.

Thursday at the Walnut Valley Festival

Walnut Valley Festival got off to a good start Thursday. Crowd was not huge Thursday, but then, it usually isnt, so its hard to tell anything based on that.
They had quiet the storm Wednesday night, but seemed ok Thursday. The "infield" at stage one is muddy, but should be dried out sometime tomorrow - Friday.
Top left is Betse Ellis, fiddle player for the Wilders, and that is all i have to say about lady fiddle players.
Next is the Wilders playing hot. Followed by Small Potatoes,  and at the bottom is the group, the Wiyos. One of their members was not able to get to the show, so they brought a dummy in to replace him. They are always a fun band.
Ill be posting more photos and such. Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.

Here is a link to a story I wrote for a website for a more general audience.

City Comission / Bulldog Stadium

City commission worksession is today at 5:30 p.m.
Also tomorrow, 6:30 p.m., there will be a dedication ceremony at the new Bulldog Stadium, . and the first game to be played there will follow at 7 p.m.
On tonight's agenda with the city commission:
Adopting a policy tto have potential city board appointees fill out a "form of interest" .. Remember people objected to the word "application"  last time.
Approving an agreement with the schools to use the City Police drug dog for random drug sweeps. Schools do this already, but are currently hiring an out of town operation to do it.
Warrant checks for 2008. These are checks the city has written that people or businesses have not cashed.
Rezoning at 836 E. Kansas from residential to industrial
Preliminary plat of Meadows Edge subdvision.

Walnut Valley fesival is rolling. Hope the weather cooperates.
Still having technical difficulties. CHeck back to see if the live blog is happening. At this point it is 50-50 ... my laptop has some sort of electrical problem which makes it shut off without warning, which would be a major pain if that were to happen in a live blog. so ... we shall see.

Shanna Seyfarth goes for a kill in the Cowley volleyball match with Labette Monday evening. Cowley rolled to an easy 3-0 win and was never challenged.
Cowley has another home match Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

Cowley athletes named players of the week

Helping the No. 9-ranked Cowley College volleyball team go 5-0 on the week and defeat nationally ranked Iowa Lakes (No. 16) and No. 1-ranked Parkland College, sophomore middle hitter Lindsey Chandler was named the KJCCC Verizon Wireless Division II Volleyball Player of the Week.

Chandler has made great improvements as a middle hitter in just one year. This week she led her team in hitting efficiency at 44% and total blocks at 6.5. She helped the Lady Tigers’ run their winning streak to nine matches in a row and finished the week with 40 kills.

“Lindsey has improved so much and is showing how valuable she is to the team,” Bahner said.

Missing all but the first three games of last season due to injury, Cowley College sophomore Carol Rodrigues has returned to make an impact on the Lady Tiger soccer team. Her solid play has not gone unnoticed as she was recently named the KJCCC Verizon Wireless Women’s Soccer Player of the Week.

Rodrigues, a midfielder from Brasilia, Brazil, scored two goals and added three assists as Cowley went 1-1 last week. She had a goal and an assist in Cowley’s 4-2 loss to MCC-Blue River and finished with a goal and two assists in an 11-0 win over Independence.

“Carol has been a catalyst in our midfield so far this year,” Cowley head coach Dane Straight said. “Her foot skills are allowing her to get out of tight spots and make the defense focus on her and then pass the ball to open teammates to create scoring opportunities.”

Prior to last season’s injury, Rodrigues finished sixth in the nation in assists (18) as a freshman at Cowley as she was named a first-team Jayhawk Conference midfielder.

“She has worked so hard to get back and to see her effort rewarded is great,” Straight said. “She is an extremely dangerous player and I look forward to seeing her back at full strength by the end of the year.”

 

Cowley Volleyball

Cowley College volleyball team beat top-ranked Parkland at a tournament over the weekend. Cowley was ranked No. 1 a couple weeks ago.  Cowley breezed through a tournament with four wins over the weekend.
Cowley is in action tonight, hosting winless Labette at 6:30
See the rest of the story below

Walnut Valley Festival - Land Rush

The Landrush was held over the weekend at the Walnut Valley Festival. I am not camping this year, but I did participate in the landrush last year, which was quiet an experience. It is kind of amazing how well that thing is organized. It seems like utter chaos when it is happening, but it wasnt real hard. You just have to go with it.

Anyways, this week will be the Walnut Valley Festival. This is my favorite event  around here, even if it is in Winfield. :) While I think the rivalry between the towns is basically a good thing, It has no relevance when it comes to music.

I am sure there is some impact on Ark City. There are about 15000 additional people in Winfield this week, so there is bound to be some spillover. I know a lot of people here in town will be going over there. What are your thoughts on the Walnut Valley Festival? Why do you go, or why do you not go?

I will be there as much as possible and will post photos. Send in your walnut valley experiences..
Other stuff
Coming up real soon is the anniversary of the "real" Landrush, the one held in Arkansas City that opened the Oklahoma Territory to white settlers in 1893 - yet another theft from Indians. But ... it is atrocious that we do not have anything planned. Not even the Mayor signing a proclamation or anything.
How ridiculous is that?
Thursday at noon would be the anniversary.. Anyone want to meet and mark the day ?
There were seven landrushes .. here is a list of them from wikipedia

1. April 22, 1889: Land run of 1889 took place at high noon and involved the settlement of the Unassigned Lands (most of modern day Canadian, Cleveland, Kingfisher, Logan, Oklahoma, and Payne counties).
2. September 22, 1891: Land run to settle Iowa, Sac and Fox, Potawatomi, and Shawnee lands.
3. September 23, 1891: Land run to settle Tecumseh, the pre-designated location of the county seat of County B, later renamed as Pottawatomie County.
4. September 28, 1891: Land run to settle Chandler, the pre-designated location of the county seat of County A, later renamed as Lincoln County.
5. April 19, 1892: Land run to settle the Cheyenne and Arapaho lands.
6. September 16, 1893: Cherokee Strip Land Run. The Run of the Cherokee Strip opened nearly 7,000,000 acres (28,000 km²) to settlement on September 16, 1893. The land was purchased from the Cherokees for $7,000,000. It was largest land run in United States history.
7. May 23, 1895: Land run to settle the Kickapoo lands.

Saturday, 9-11 and Bulldogs and other things

I just realized that I have not posted anything in a few days. I have been busy and have had some computer troubles. The laptop was sick. Its working now so we shall see.
Today obviously is 9-11. Far as I know there are no local activities to mark the date. Not sure what should be done, maybe nothing is fine.
Arkansas and Winfield football game was stopped by the storm last night, and will be finished this morning. Winfield is ahead, but maybe the Bulldogs will regroup?
Back to 9-11 again. The thing about burning qurans became a complete media circus. More than anything it shows the excess of American media and how ridiculous things can get. On again off again, on again, lets make a deal ,, no deal, deal on a gain ... sheesh.
The florida "pastor" got his 15 minutes of fame, will get a trip to New York and probably made a few thousand bucks on the side. P T Barnum would be proud.  Just saying, this had absolutely nothing to do with defending America, sticking up for our culture or standing up to Islam ... It had everything to do with a huge dog and pony show.
One point a poster made, which I thought was legit .. was that some time back muslims were  burning bibles in a Middle East Country and so forth, and there really was not much of a media storm.. Here it was just a pastor threatening too burn a quran and you saw what happened . BUT realize, it wasn't Muslims that were throwing a fit over it as much as it was our own media creating a crisis..
.
Still, i think the florida pastor is more a charlatan and con man than a man of God. Yes, i guess I am judging him, but ... it is biblical to hold those who call themselves pastors up to a higher standard. It is writ that those who would be teachers are held to a higher standard by God even.  His threatened actions - let alone the dog and pony show - were not becoming of a Pastor - let alone a "regular" christian.

I wanted to also comment on the Mosque planned near Ground Zero in New York. It isn't exactly "next to" ground zero as some would have us believe. From what I have read, you would not be able to see it from ground zero because of other buildings and such.
Even so ... there is the issue of sensitivity. Moving it a few blocks further away would help and that should be a reasonable alternative.
I cannot help but think of the Confederate Flag. I never knew it was offensive to some black people until the late 90s. and thats even with growing up in the south. Dont know if yall remember the flap about it flying over the statehouse in south carolina for years. Actually it was put up there in the mid 60s but it took until the mid 90s for anyone to realize they were offended.
And to be truthful it was hard to see. If you didn't know it was the confederate flag, you probably would not have recognized it if you were casually walking down the street in front of it. I lived in the state capital from 1993 to 2003, and did not realize it was there until it was pointed out in about 1998.
BUT .. people are offended by it. I am not offended by it, but a lot of people apparently are, so I was in favor of taking it down just because of that. They put up a little monument to confederate soldiers on the grounds instead, so I thought that was a good compromise.
I see a strong parallel to the mosque.
I know the majority of Muslims are not terrorists and did not support 9-11, and do not want to make war on us. It is the radical fringe that does.
To compare the Confederate Flag analogy ... Most white people don't hate or even look down on black people, and remember the civil war mostly as just a piece of history. It is the radical fringe that is the problem.

Another fact that seems to be getting lost in all this. The person behind putting up the mosque does not yet have the money to build it. It might never happen at all. Still, I think moving it a bit further away would be a good compromise. 

KU quarterback change

Kansas coach Turner Gill announced Wednesday that he has named a new starting quarterback.
He really tried to put a positive spin on things after the team's embarrassing loss in the opener last week.
Read the whole story, and talk about it, on the sports blog.,
which can be found here

Ack. Technical difficulties

Having some technical difficulties this evening.
Wont be able to get the live blog going. Wont even be able to be there
Ill try to get caught up in a day or so.
Sorry about that.
j

Cowley Soccer Teams Win

Both Cowley College soccer teams rolled to easy wins Monday. See the jump for the stories from Cowley.

City Commission - boards

A new agenda item has been added for tonight's meeting. That is setting a policy that people who want to be on boards have to fill out an "interest" form. There were objections to the word "application" at the worksession last Thursday.
While it is not the most pressing matter for the city, it is an interesting issue.
For a few years people have had to fill out one of these forms. The setting of a policy was brought up by commissioner Dotty Smith.
She, and Mell Kuhn both used the forms when they were mayor. Last year Mayor Jay Warren used them some. Current Mayor Patrick McDonald does not use them much and doesn't like the idea.

These boards range from things like beautification board, building trades board to even the zoning and board of appeals. The city has had difficulty at times getting people to serve, and have also had difficulty when there were people who just wanted to be on a board and it was hard to oust them even though they would not show up for meetings.

There are two sides to this. One is that "having to" fill out an application does create some consternation ... and could discourage people. It is a volunteer post with no pay and no glory, so having to "qualify" in some way is kind of a turnoff.
On the other hand, filling out forms is a way for the city to build up a list of people who might be willing to serve at a later date, and to determine just who is interested. This would be a way for people to let the city know they are interested in getting involve, and could open it up to more people.

Another aspect is that the Mayor gets to make the appointments. One of the few perks of the job. The commission has to approve - or not - the appointment - but it is the mayor that holds the key. I guess there are two or more sides to that as well.

Meeting is at 7 p.m. today.

What would Jesus do about 9-11

A small church in Florida says it plans to burn copies of the Quran on 9-11. An AP story has top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus saying Tuesday an American church's threat to burn copies of the Muslim holy book could endanger U.S. troops in the country and Americans worldwide.

I think they should have a legal right to do this, but I think it is very un-Christian and wrong-headed.

The General is right in that it could spark additional extremism on the part of radical muslims. It gives them yet another tool to stir up anger and hate. Whether it ticks off the radical muslims is not a reason to not do something, but at the same time, why give them ammunition?

Just as I have said Muslims should condemn and distance themselves from the radical fringe if they do not want to be identified with them, I think Christians should condemn and distance themselves from this radical extremist evangelical group in Florida.

They have 50 members, so not exactly a big influence, but it does show what the internet can do. They have used the internet to get a whole lot of publicity, and to stir up hate against muslims. And now even the AP is giving them free publicity. I would imagine they have received a good bit of money as a result of all their publicity.

This is a good example of politics taking over religion. I really cannot imagine Jesus doing something like that. The scriptures say do not repay evil with evil, but rather with good.

Bulldogs, Jayhawks and comments

Good Labor Day morning. Hope everyone is having a good holiday. I cant help but remember the days when i lived on the South Carolina coast. We residents always looked forward to Labor Day because that was the weekend all the tourists went away.
We went from a city of 50,000 to a town of 15,000 that weekend. Memorial day was just the opposite.

Anyways, a few comments on the morning.
Bulldogs looked good Friday night. Noticed there is not anything on the local paper's website about it.
But they did look good. They have a good quarterback who should do great things this year. Winfield also won. Should make for a good game this coming Friday, but it is in Winfield.

Not so the Jayhawks. They looked pretty bad in losing to -- oh my goodness -- North Dakota State. Toward the end of the game, needing a last minute scoring drive, they were out of timeouts.
This does not bode well for KU fans. But, good teams make their best improvements between weeks one and two. They better with Georgia Tech coming up, but this week should make a huge difference. A close loss against Ga Tech - a highly ranked team - would be a good sign. A bad blowout ... could make for an ugly season.

I also wanted to comment about comments. I did delete some over the weekend while the blog was being spammed.
It is not a matter of censorship. Or freedom of speech.
If you want to start your own blog and anonymously spew out hate, violence, obscenity and slander, no one is going to stop you.
Im just tired of some of the anonymous bs though. The only reason I dont require names is that you could put any name on a post and there's no way to check.
But I think I might start being a bit more heavy handed with deleting posts.

The purpose of comments is to allow for community discussion and hopefully the exchange of ideas. It's purpose is not to allow mean people an anonymous venue to beat up on people.

Cowley Volleyball Cruises

                Cowley volleyball opens home slate in impressive fashion

Entering the season with a 16-match home winning streak, the No. 1-ranked Cowley College volleyball team picked up where it left off as they blasted Northern Oklahoma College-Enid 25-15, 25-6, 25-7 Thursday inside W.S. Scott Auditorium.
After a 25-15 win of game one, the Lady Tigers showed why they are the top-ranked team in NJCAA Division II in games two and three.

9-2-10 city worksession

City Commission agenda

City Commission has its worksession today at 5:30.
I will try to have the live blog going.
Here is what is on the agenda

• Proclaim National Stepfamily day
• Good Neighbor Award
• Report from Chamber on Community development
• Appoint delegates to league of municipalities
• Patterson Park Subdivision Street Improvements
• Setting a date for a public hearing on dangerous structures
• Easements for underground utilities to Patterson Park Subdivision..Condemnation through Eminent Domain.. 20-foot wide strip along Highway 77
• Giving the Ark City BBQ Association a permit to have the beer garden at Arkalalah

Cowley volleyball home opener tonight

The Cowley College volleyball team rolled to an easy win Wednesday, and will have its first home game of the season today at 6:30 p.m. 
Below is the story, and below that look for Cowley soccer updates

   Top-ranked Lady Tigers open region play with win over Hesston
By RAMA PEROO
Benefitting from taking part in the challenging Johnson County Tournament last weekend, the No. 1-ranked Cowley College volleyball team made easy work of its first true road contest as they won at Hesston College Wednesday, 25-13, 25-11, 25-10.