Category: Local News

By Cathy Loffland
The Haysville Times

Terry Bergen and Luther Holloway were working in a shop behind Bergen’s Aunt Barbara Chandler’s house. They decided to quit working around midnight and walked out of the shop and noticed more smoke coming out the house than just from the fireplace. Bergen and Holloway went in the house to make sure Bergen’s aunt was okay.
The living room was engulfed in flames. Bergen was the first one in the door to start looking for Bergen’s aunt, and they got seperated. Holloway went outside to call 911 and get help.
“We never even gave it a second thought that we were putting our lives at risk when we first went in the home,” said Holloway.
Holloway went back into the house and started looking for his friend and his friend’s aunt. He had to go back out a couple of time to get air.
Holloway headed to the back of the house and found Bergen lying on the floor and dragged him out of the house. Bergen was unconscious, and his skin was burnt off from the waist up. Bergen came to so he could tell his friend that he had found his aunt and had a hold of her until he collapsed.
The fire marshall calls this an act of heroism. “If anybody is the hero, Terry is the hero,” said Holloway.
Holloway feels bad because he was able to save his friend but could not save Chandler.
Bergen is in the Burn Unit at St. Francis Hospital. The doctors gave him a five percent chance to live, and Holloway says his friend is a fighter and will make it.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to Bergen and his family.

Haysville – Bonds for New Library

YES …… 1180 / 50%
NO …… 1139 / 49%

By Emily Davis
The Haysville Times

On November 3rd, and 4th the Haysville Friends of the Library will be putting on their annual Mystery Dinner Theater production. This will be the tenth year that they will be performing an original play to benefit the Haysville Library. The deadline to purchase tickets will be November 2nd. Admission prices will be $25 per couple or $15 for an individual. Children under 12 are $10. All proceeds will go toward the Friends of the Library fund which is supporting the bond issue on this years ballot about the library expansion. The production will take place at the Haysville United Methodist Church, 601 E. Grand. This will be the third year at this location.
This year’s play, “Spunky and the Haysville Gang!”, should be a great time and will be sure to entertain. Just think Little Rascals’ Our Gang with some Haysville warp. Spunky (played by Marion Renner) is the leader of a marble playing gang of kids and is accused of a crime. Is he guilty? What will happen? This is a true “who dun it“ that you won’t want to miss.
The eight person cast is filled with Haysville’s veterans to the stage. Renner works as a supervisor of the student teachers at Newman University. The play’s director is Joe Perkins, whose day job is that of a flight instructor. This is his first year directing but second year being in the play. He will make his stage appearance this year as the dog Lucky, the faithful friend to Mr. Clean played by Haysville Times’ own Ray Racobs. Racobs is a fourth year veteran to the stage. Joetta Branch who plays ragweed, is a fifth year veteran. When Branch isn’t pursuing the stage, she is a Noninvasive Cardiac Tech (a.k.a. EKG Tech) at Via Christi Medical Center. Zoe Burgess who plays Lilly is also a fifth year veteran. She works as an Executive Assistant with the Warren Theater Co. Anna Perkins, wife of Director Joe Perkins, is an Executive Assistant at Galaxy Audio and appears in the play as Mrs. Crow. Anna is one of the two first timers. Lyn Worrell is President of the Friends of the Library and is the other first timer to the stage. She will be playing the part of Darla Karla. Marion Renner, as Spunky, is the true veteran with ten years of directing and performing.
Tickets are on sale now at the Haysville Community Library.

By Staff
The Haysville Times

Lisa Hyde was the Grand Prize Winner of the First Annual Haysville Times Hometown Sweepstakes. She received $250 cash from Publisher CJ Cross and Circulation Manager/Sales Director Cathy Loffland on Wednesday morning. The three Runner-Up Winners were Lori Terrell, John Darbyshire, and Betty Hoppock. They each received $50. Congratulations! Look for another chance to win in next years Hometown

By Pamela ONeal
The Haysville Times

The proposed site for the new library is located in the Historic District of Haysville on Hays street just east of the old main street. This site “will hopefully become the centerpiece of Haysville’s attempt to reestablish the Historic District and spur redevelopment in the area since its destruction by the tornado in May of 1999,” said Zoe Burgess, Library Board and Friends of the Library member.
“Reading and literature opens the world to all of us at virtually no expense,” said Burgess. She cites how members can get a library card, request a book, check out a book, a movie, a book on tape, re-check a book, use a computer, do research online, attend children’s reading groups, attend featured lecturers, speakers, or a book discussion group lead by a college professor. All of these features would be available as well as many of the other functions and presentations by the library at no cost. Continue reading “A New Library, Or Not?”

By Kayleigh Kaufman
The Haysville Times

This year’s 22 annual Fall Festival features Ty England, former lead guitar player for Garth Brooks. England will perform after the lead-in group Twang, 9 p.m. Saturday night.
“The festival begins Friday night at 5:30 p.m.,” said Vice President Clem Dickerson. “There is bingo in the park and a carnival.”
Other events include tractor pulls, craft shows, local entertainment and a carnival.
“Saturday kicks off with a parade at 9 a.m.,” said Dickerson. “It heads down Grand St. and ends at the middle school.”
There is no admission for the festival. Festival buttons are sold to show support for the festival. “If you buy a button you can win a prize at the end of the festival,” said Dickerson. There will be a closing ceremony at 5:00 p.m. Sunday, where the prizes will be drawn.
At 6:00 p.m. a flag retirement ceremony will commence. “The flag retirement is when people bring in old ragged flags and we burn them the correct way,” said Dickerson. It is the respectful way to discard the American Flag.
The festival runs from Oct. 21-22.
See the special Fall Festival pull-out in this issue for more on the 2006 Fall Festival!

By Austin Falley
The Haysville Times

The bomb threat at the Haysville Alternative High School was a false alarm, Sandy Bradshaw, USD 261 communciations director, said.
Just before 1PM on Thursday, September 21, Alternative High School administrators were notified of an anonymous note found at the school giving them reason to believe that a bomb threat was possible. Principal Mark Foster notified authorities and ordered an immediate evacuation of the students, as well as people in the surrounding area.
Alternative High School students were evacuated to a near-by church while officers investigated the threat. A bomb specialist was called onto the scene where he examined the premises with a bomb-detecting dog.
After carefully surveying the area, police officers were unable to find any explosive devices. The students were allowed back into the building to finish out the school day.
No arrests have been made. The school has offered a $100 reward through Crimestoppers for information about the perpetrator(s).

By Pamela ONeal
The Haysville Times

The city council once again voted down an ordinance that would eliminate smoking in public places. After much debate by the council members, they voted 5-3 opposing.
Another issue the council discussed for the November ballot was a consideration of approval to authorize bonds to build a new library. According to Zoe Burgess, plans for the new library include:
· Increasing the square feet of the building from 12,000 to 30,000.
· Expand the number of general reading material including books and periodicals.
· Allow storage to triple.
· Provide a 100-seat community meeting room with a raised stage.
· Supply rooms for satellite courses from area universities and colleges.
· Eliminate the need to make improvements to the police department by satisfying the needs at the current library site.
· Parking stalls for the library would double.

Also on Monday, the council:
· Discussed plans for a new Haysville Senior Center.
According to Mayor Bruce Armstrong, $396,000 is “100 percent of the amount that engineers estimate to build the building.” After the council reviewed the amount that was needed to maintain the building, a motion was passed to accept the bid.
· Heard from members discussing the rules and regulations concerning solid waste storage and collection. After amendments were made to chapter seven, article two of the Haysville municipal governing rules and regulations applicable to solid waste storage and collection, the council approved the ordinance.
· Voted to take action to declare the property at 374 W. Fourth as an unsafe structure. Following the viewing of several pictures of the site, members voted to declare the property as unsafe.
· Considered the approval of bids for an RV dump station. Causing some debate about public safety and vandalism, the council agreed to approve the bid for $19,684 to K and M Building to build the facility.
· Considered the approval of bids for the water treatment plant chlorination telemetry improvements.
· Let a motion die that would look into the possible need of time clocks for city employees. In a debate to discuss whether city employees needed to clock in and out, the council let a motion die that would have had a committee look into the possibility of installation of time clocks for city employees.

By Ray Racobs
The Haysville Times

The main order of business for the Haysville Planning Commission, during their September 14th meeting, was to conduct a public hearing to consider a conditional use permit requested by Haysville’s First Baptist Church at 153 South Delos.
Pastor Phillip was present and addressed the board members to explain the request and answer questions. The church needs to expand and build an additional structure on the property that will be used for meeting spaces and Sunday school classrooms.
The only verbal or written concern that anyone from the public offered, in regards to the request, dealt with too many vehicles parking on the streets around the church. The pastor stated that there was enough space available in their parking lot for the members and he would address the matter with them.
The commission recommended approval of the conditional use permit with a few stipulations attached. The new structure would need to blend in architecturally with other buildings on the site and any added outside lighting should not interfere with the neighbors surrounding the church.
The street-side parking issue was also mentioned. If it continues to be a problem, “no parking” signs might be needed along the street to free up the congestion of having cars parked on both sides of the surrounding streets.
The next open meeting of the Haysville Planning Commission is scheduled for 7:00 p.m., September 28, 2006, at the Municipal Building, 200 W. Grand.

By Kayleigh Kaufman
The Haysville Times

A school bus occupied by five children was struck Friday Sept. 1st, as it pulled out of Campus High School between 3:30 and 4:30 in the afternoon.
The Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Department responded to the accident, reporting the school bus driver as most at fault. Police stated the school bus pulled into traffic and was struck by a vehicle heading north on Meridian.
Although the police could not give any statements as to the stability of the driver, they admit the driver was taken in the same day on DUI charges.
The accident was reported as a code green, meaning only cuts and bruises and no hospitalization was needed. “Some children had their parents come pick them up, while others got onto another school bus,” said Sandy Bradshaw, Community Relations Coordinator.
“The driver was a substitute, [and] as a result of the accident he was removed from the list of drivers,” said Bradshaw
Haysville School Administrators do not know whether the driver was taken in on DUI charges at the time of the accident. While uncertain about what happened at the scene of the accident, Bradshaw verified some form of testing was performed on the bus driver.