This School Is Cool

By Ray Racobs
The Haysville Times

Photo Credit: Tri-City Day School

Tri-City School has gone to the dogs or dog, to be more precise. They’ve also taken the next step and have gone to the rabbits, too. It’s all in a good way, however, and the school’s administrator, Gina Keirns couldn’t be happier.
Small in size, but not in stature, the school and its staff of around eighteen, tend to the educational, emotional, and developmental needs of up to thirty K-12 students from the communities of Haysville, Derby and Mulvane. Given the diversity of the students and the situations that the staff faces daily, it’s a safe bet that boredom is never a problem at TCS.
Continue reading “This School Is Cool”

Holt Retires

By Barb Walters
The Haysville Times

Photo Credit: Barb Walters

It was the end of an era last week when long-time Library Board member Dorothy Holt participated in the last meeting of what she has said would be her last term. Holt was there at the beginning, in the days before Haysville had a library.
She recalls a time when a bookmobile from a neighboring community made regular stops in the parking lot of the grocery store. Residents could choose from a very limited number of titles and would have to check out and return their selections on specified days during specific hours. Nevertheless, the people of Haysville patronized the bookmobile as their only source of library materials. Continue reading “Holt Retires”

Vickers Building to Open Soon

By Angie Gumm
The Haysville Times

Haysville residents looking to talk things over with Larry Powell, the city’s community developer, will soon be able to do so at the restored Vickers Building. After years of talk and planning, the old Vickers Building has been fixed into community developer’s office.
Powell said they were mainly waiting for fiber optics to be installed and that “barring a parking fiasco,” the building would be open at least by May 19, in time for the next Haysville Forward meeting.
Joking about the small size of the building, Superintendent Dr. John Burke said that the committee “may have to lose weight.”
A few major faces were missing from the Haysville Community Expo this year, including Dairy Queen, Dana Haislett’s Shelter Insurance, and Homeland. According to the committee, the first two businesses had prior commitments and Homeland did not hear back from their corporate office with authorization to attend.
Tom Gibson, who helped organize the event, was disappointed about the smaller turnout. “It’s a little disheartening thinking about what’s here and what’s in the community and who we get involved with it,” he said.”
Gibson said he was especially referring to the lack of participation by churches and student organizations in the last couple of years.
The $100 price tag to have a booth at the expo was seen as a possible deterrent, but Gibson said that was the lowest prices could go unless Haysville Forward helped subsidize them.
Haysville Forward and the school district have each contributed $5,000 for the city’s new advertising campaign, which they are hoping to air on regular, local television instead of cable. The group is starting to collect bids from agencies.
The new Haysville Leadership Academy is revving up to start in September. The group is looking to meet the first Thursday of every month from September to March, with the exception of December. The program will teach local people how to get involved and become leaders in the community. The cost of the program will be $100, with $25 of that to be paid by the attendee’s employer. The academy is starting to solicit names of potential community leaders who might be interest in attending. You can nominate someone else or yourself by calling Sandy Bradshaw at 554-2200. Between 12 and 20 people will be participating in the group.
The annual Haysville, Mulvane, Derby Tri-City breakfast will take place at 7 a.m. on May 5 at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Mulvane. For more information, call Dr. John Burke at 554-2200.

Williamson Trial Starts Monday

By Angie Gumm
The Haysville Times

The trial of former Haysville teacher Matthew Williamson is scheduled to begin on Monday. Last Friday, the 23 charges against Williamson were consolidated into one case. The charges include rape, lewdly fondly or touching a child, furnishing a child with alcohol, and encouraging a child to have sex with him. Five separate victims were named in the charges, all between 14 and16 years of age.
Williamson, now 26-years-old, was employed as a shop teacher at Campus High School from August 12, 2003, to January 10, 2005. The alleged crimes occurred from October 31, 2004, to January 1, 2005.
Among those scheduled to testify are Campus Principal Myron Regier, Campus Counselors Cathy Voss and Walter Zemanick, Haysville Police Officer Kevin Sexton, and shop teacher J.L. Walker.

City to Vote on New School Plat

By Patricia Barkley
The Haysville Times

A joint workshop was held Tuesday between the City of Haysville and the Board of Education to discuss issues concerning the plans for the new middle school and elementary school. It was announced that the school district’s share of the cost for putting in a new sewage pipe would be two thirds of the total cost, $136,850, in keeping with the district’s estimated usage of the pipe. The majority of the discussion, however, centered on the Mayor’s and City Council’s objections to the district’s drainage plans for the land at the northwest corner of 71st and Meridian. Bruce Armstrong stated that the City used the County’s standard of a 1% grading on the land, and the school land was only at .25%. The district’s engineering consultants and the City’s consultant from PEC both felt that this would be fine, though, and the County has not voiced any objections. Putting in a swale was one possible solution, but the Council felt that the more expensive piping was the best plan. The next step will be for the City Council to vote on the plat for that land at their April 10 meeting.

Haysville Working to Get New Senior Center

By Angie Gumm
The Haysville Times

While Haysville did not get the grant money to build the new senior center it had hoped for this time around, the city is going to try again.
The city applied for a Community Development Grant for the new center but was notified earlier this year that they would not receive the funding.
Who gets a grant is decided by a point system. Applicants get points based on how they meet certain requirements from the state. Haysville lost points for not matching the amount of funds they were applying for. If the city applies for $300,000, for instance, they have to be willing to invest $300,000 in the project as well. Most cities that got grants had at least 100% matching.
If the city doesn’t get a grant after re-applying in September, they decided at the capitol outlay meeting earlier this month that they would go ahead with the building themselves. Either way, construction for the new senior center will start in 2007. The plan is for the building to be located next to the new senior residences on the east side of Main.
Many have complained that the current senior center, the first city building in Haysville, is too small and that its shape is not conducive to group functions.

Haysville Garden Tour

By Tricia Stithem
The Haysville Times

The Haysville Garden Tour Club had their first meeting this year at the Senior Citizen Center at 7 pm, March 7th. Phil Harris, who is organizing the garden tour, looks for a bigger turnout at the next meeting on Tuesday, March 21st, at the Senior Center. Everyone is invited to attend.
There are ten new gardens this year, and they should be even more interesting due to the showcasing with lights. The evening showing will be June 16th from approximately 7 pm to 10 pm. Saturday’s daytime showing will last to approximately 1 pm.
March 21st discussions will pertain to perhaps drawings for prizes, lists of gardens and extreme make over gardens. Come be apart of the fun. Banners and signs are needed, as well as further commitment from our Haysville people, according to Harris. Meetings will be every two weeks at the Senior Citizen Center in Haysville.

$1 Million from FEMA for USD 261

By Patricia Barkley
The Haysville Times

Last month, USD 261 received word that the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be providing grant funds in the amount of $1,003,590 for the purpose of constructing safe rooms, or tornado shelters, in the district, as part of a Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. Plans have been made to construct six of these rooms, one in the new elementary, one in the new middle school, and one each at Oatville, Nelson, Rex, and Freeman schools. The total cost of construction will be $1,338,120, and the district will contribute $334,530 in order to cover the difference.
“They’ll be able to hold the entire student body and all the staff at the school,” said Superintendent John Burke of the size of the rooms.
Bids are expected to come in for the new elementary school on March 30, and construction should begin within two weeks after that. The rooms for the existing elementary schools will be built over the next few summers. They have an expected completion date of August 2008.

City Gets Input from Citizens on Nuisances

By Angie Gumm
The Haysville Times

The City held a workshop on the last Saturday of February to get input from Haysville citizens and business owners about the city’s handling of code violations.
“We used to handle things on a complaint basis, and now we’re doing things on a proactive basis,” said Mayor Bruce Armstrong.
Nothing has changed recently about Haysville’s code, but the increasing number of nuisance abatements that have appeared before the council in the last year reflects the change in enforcement.
Now that people are being cited for things which they believed were acceptable in the past, the city said they wanted to hear from the public about the codes.
Jack Harris, operator of The Overflow Mini-Storage since 1985, was told that he couldn’t have inoperable vehicles at his facility. “I go along here for years, running this business seemingly OK,” said Harris. “All of a sudden I’m illegal. I’ve been renting this for 21 years. I’ve been a bad guy for 21 years…I’m not selling dope or booze to minors. I’m selling outside storage.”
Harris said when the City asked him to make his parking lot all-weathered, he complied by dumping 27 tons of rock on the land. He asked why they made him pay for that if he wasn’t supposed to be operating the storage facility as he was.
Resident Vern Lippoldt lamented what he called the inequality of enforcement. “I don’t like the idea of putting neighbor against neighbor,” he said.
“If I want to keep my grandpa’s car in my backyard, I’m going to keep it,” Lippoldt said. “I don’t hunt. I don’t fish. I don’t watch sports. I mess with old tractors and old engines because I enjoy it.”
Councilman Steve Crum said he understood that people liked or needed to have a place to work on cars, “At the same time,” he said, “my parents live on Van Arsdale, and they have a chain-link fence, and just about everybody on the street has one, and I don’t think I’d want to go down that street and see twenty vehicles in (20) people’s backyards.”
Although there was debate on the issue, this was used as an argument for permitting people to store inoperable vehicles at storage facilities. A need was addressed, though, to allow some place for people to store their vehicles.
“It doesn’t matter to me if it’s an operable or inoperable vehicle. People are going to have cars they need to work on, and they’re going to need a place to store them,” said the mayor.
“Basically, just common sense is what we need to follow,” said councilmember Bill Youngers. “Outside storages should be able to store inoperable vehicles as long as they’re well-screened.”
Another issue was whether things would be permitted behind privacy fences that would not be otherwise.
“I figure if someone’s driving by my house, and they can’t see anything behind two wooden panelings, it shouldn’t bother them,” said resident Gary White.
Councilmember Keith Pierce wanted to know if the city passed some kind of time limit for having an inoperable vehicle on private property, how it would be enforced. “When does the clock start ticking? Once it gets discovered?”
The role and authority of the code enforcement officer was also discussed. Some council members thought that giving the officer more discretion would eliminate some of the sillier violations and would create a more understanding atmosphere for individual circumstances. Others thought that the authority could be abused or be too big of a burden for the officer.
“I’m a firm believer that friends will help friends and not the other person,” said Haysville’s Howard Cook. “There should be a criteria…and make it equal for everyone.”
“Kale ought to exercise politeness and say ‘here is the law, here’s how you can fix it,’” said Harris, of Haysville Code Enforcement Officer Kale Topinka. “If it’s not taken care of, then you can come back. I think politeness first. If that doesn’t work, then you can stand back and throw the folderol.”
Crum defended Topinka, who was at the meeting but didn’t speak. “Kale is doing what the council has asked him to do. I’m sure Kale gets a lot more rudeness thrown back at him than he throws at people,” he said. “If Kale wasn’t doing his job, we wouldn’t be here. He’s doing what the city’s asking him to.”
The council is going to consider the thoughts expressed at the workshop and will use them, as well as input from city employees and codes of other cities to make any changes to the current city codes.

Corrections to Fire Story

By Angie Gumm
The Haysville Times

As I called the fire captain when he didn’t have a chance to check his notes, many of the facts in the story about the Graber home were incorrect. (The cause of the fire was incorrect because of my misunderstanding.) Here is the correct information from David Graber. I’m sorry for these mistakes. You can still donate items for the Grabers at Changes Family Hair Care at 418 W. Grand. –Angie Gumm
-All three cats died from poisonous smoke.
-The fire started when wood was added to the fireplace not the stove. The fire jumped out of the fire place and ignited newspapers left on the floor.
-All three occupants suffered minor injuries to the hands, feet and legs.
-The fire started at around 9:15 pm Satuday night.
-Skirting from the next door neighbor’s house was also damaged.
The Grabers would like to thank the Haysville United Methodist Church, Changes Family Hair Care, Pizza Hut, and other citizens from the Haysville and Wichita communities for their thoughts, prayers and volunteer work.