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.