The Hays Daily News from Hays, Kansas • Page 3

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9,2003 Region Trego County couple named family of the year MANHATTAN La Verne and Theo Wiedeman were named the Kansas Farm Bureau Family of the Year from Farm Bureau's Sixth District. The Wiedemans received their award during the 85th annual meeting Nov. 15 in Manhattan. The Wiedemans currently own and operate 1,280 acres of farmland. Some of that currently is enrolled in the CRP program.

They are semiretired and rent the remaining portion of their land. Theo has been women's chairman for Trego County since 1988. She is active in Ag in the Classroom and the local county fair booth. Food Check-Out Day has been one of her favorite projects as well as Leadership America. La Verne enjoys traveling with Theo to Farm Bureau activities.

LaVerne and Theo are active members of Zion Lutheran Church in WaKeeney She has taught vacation Bible school and Sunday school for many years and is very active in the church women's group. Both have been involved in the local FFA chapter and are lifetime honorary FFA alumni members. Theo also has served on the Campus Protestant Center board of directors at Fort Hays State University for the past 12 years. One family in each of Farm Bureau's 10 districts in Kansas is selected each year for the farm family award. This award recognizes families for their service and leadership in agriculture, their communities and Farm Bureau.

The Weidmans attended the annual meeting as guests of Kansas. Farm Bureau, received a commemorative gift and will join other award winners on an expense-paid trip this spring. Kansas Farm Bureau represents grassroots agriculture. Established in 1919, this nonprofit advocacy organization supports farm families who earn their living in a changing industry Kansas Judge finds protesters REGION AND STATE THE HAYS DAILY NEWS A3 c6'urt'judgeHas timythlng'p'i'dtestersSrres'ted outside a Dole Institute of Politics dedication event are guilty of is walking in a roadway. Judge Randy McGrath issued a written ruling finding the protesters innocent of unlawful assembly, disorderly conduct, failure to get a right-of-way permit and refusing to comply with a traffic order.

He said some of the evidence against the protesters "woefully short." In his ruling, McGrath said the protesters are innocent of unlawful assembly because the city failed to prove they planned to commit acts of violence or disturb the peace. He pointed out that one of the protesters had told police she expected the protest to be nonviolent. He also ruled there was no proof that Police Chief Ron Olin or other officers gave the protesters clear instructions to move, and the city failed to show that the protesters were required to have a right-of-way permit. Yellow Corp. shareholders OK Roadway acquisition OVERLAND PARK (AP) Yellow Corp.

said today its shareholders have approved the trucking company's acquisition of rival Roadway in a cash- and-stock deal that had been valued at $966 million. Roadway, based in Akron, Ohio, was to announce its shareholders' decision later today. If the deal goes through, Yellow-Roadway would control more than 15 percent of the less-than- truckload market. Yellow and Roadway are less- than-truckload carriers, meaning they consolidate freight from multiple customers. Bill Zollars, Yellow's chairman, president, and chief executive officer, said last month the carriers would continue to compete with each other.

Shareholders of Roadway are to receive 1.752 shares of Yellow for each share they own of Roadway Corrections The Hays Daily News staff takes care with its reporting and writing. But if we make a mistake, we want to know about it so we can let readers know the correct information. We encourage readers who find an error to contact us at (785) 628-1081. Ask for Doug Weller, executive editor, or Mike Corn, managing editor, or e-mail the editors at or Walker plaque is ready, but where to put It? By JEREMY SHAPIRO HAYS DAILY NEWS A plaque commemorating soldiers who served at Walker Army Air Base is ready to put up somewhere near the Ellis County Courthouse or the Hays Public Library. The problem is the courthouse and library are not ready for it.

Laurence Dryden, chairman of a committee that raised money for the memorial plaque, came to the Ellis County Commission Monday for the second time to ask where the plaque should be placed. He said the committee picked out a spot next to the sidewalk immediately north of the library. "More people will see if it is at that corner (13th and Main)," Dryden said. "That way, when young people go to the library, they will probably read it at least once and learn the history." Sculptor Pete Felten agreed to build a 4- by-8-foot rock base for the plaque, Dryden said. He wanted the commission to choose a location soon so Felten could get started.

The goal is to dedicate the plaque by or on Memorial Day, Dryden said. Commissioner Dennis Pfannenstiel said the area north of the library is congested. He wasn't sure there would be room south of the two trees on that corner even after the construction materials have been moved. Dryden said the library's board of directors has made it known they don't want those trees disturbed. He feels there is sufficient room next to the sidewalk without displacing the trees.

Commissioner Chris Channell said they should wait until the library remodeling is completed before deciding. He doesn't want to choose a place, mount the plaque and then have to move it. The library construction is scheduled to be finished by February. Commissioner Vernon Berens said there is no question the plaque is a good idea, but there just might not be room for it. Another possible location for the memorial plaque is the southwest corner of the courthouse grounds at 12th and Fort.

Dryden originally asked the commission about where to locate the plaque in June. Commissioners at the time said they would ask county Extension horticultural assistant Terry Mannell to look into some landscaping plans near the library. Commissioners weren't aware Monday if any of those plans have been made. STEVEN HAUSLER Hays Dally News Crystal Bruntz, a Fort Hays State University junior from Bazine, stacks care packages Monday evening as members of the Student Alumni Association assembled 250 bags that were purchased for college students to be distributed during finals week. Group prepares care packages By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN HAYS DAILY NEWS Laura Huslig said she was excited last year when, as a fresh-.

man at Fort Hays State University, she received a care package from her parents just before finals week. This year, Huslig, a sophomore from Wichita, said she has had just as much fun helping make similar care packages for nearly 250 students. The packages are a project of the Student Alumni Association, a campus organization with students from different majors that serves as a support group to the FHSU Alumni Association and the university's admission office. Monday evening, SAA members gathered in the lobby just outside the alumni office in Custer Hall and formed an assembly line along the tables filled with all kinds of goodies waiting to be sorted into decorated paper bags, There were cookies and microwave popcorn, pudding and candy and gum and granola bars, bottled water and juice and hot chocolate packets. Each bag also contained' an FHSU ice scraper and a large glass with the Tiger mascot as well as stickie notes and a packet of Tylenol.

In all, each packet contained 29 items. "Besides the goodies, we try to put in some souvenirs and other things that will be useful to the students," said Brenda Craven, assistant director of the alumni association who serves as the SAA sponsor. "So they have to have one of those," Craven said with a smile, pointing to a copy of the FHSU finals schedule that also is tucked into each bag. "Just in case they mighj: have lost theirs." Each decorated bag contains cookies, microwave popcorn, candy, granola bars, bottled water, hot chocolate packages, an FHSU ice scraper and glass, a packet of Tylenol and a finals schedule. The long-running project has been a popular one, especially during the first semester, with finals week being so close to Christmas.

FHSU's computing center creates labels for the SAA, sorting students by certain criteria. For the care package project, the SAA targets undergraduate students 23 years or younger who live in residence halls or in Hays. Craven said that there also have been some orders for commuting students as well as some specialty orders for students with certain medical concerns. Each fall and spring semester, the SAA sends postcards to the parents of those targeted students, telling them about the project and the contents of the care package that sells for $20. The organization's fund-raising committee figures out how many packages of each item it needs to purchase and buys them at Wal-Mart.

This year, nearly 2,600 cards were sent and 250 responded, some as late as Monday. "Almost 10 percent, that's excellent. This is the most since I've been here," said Craven, who is in her third year at the alumni association. Students are notified by mail that they have a package awaiting them in the alumni office, and SAA members set up a schedule to be available for students to pick up the packages. Finals begin Saturday and end Dec.

17. "I think they're great," Tranda Ihrig, a sophomore art major from Goodland, said of the care packages. "You don't get much mail, and one day you have a postcard saying you're getting a care package." That was last year for Ihrig, who lives in Agnew Hall on campus. This year, she was part of the assembly process, something Meredith Palmer said she has looked forward to each semester since joining the SAA as a freshman. "It's a team-building activity," said Palmer, a senior from Lucas who talked her younger sister, Marley, a freshman, into joining SAA, too.

"And everybody looks forward to it because it's at the end of the semester." Palmer, vice president of the organization, will graduate in a couple of weeks with a degree in marketing and said she will take with her invaluable experiences gained as a member of SAA. Money earned from the care package project helps offset costs for SAA members to attend conferences, and Palmer has traveled to Canada, St. Louis, Iowa and Nashville, for some of those. But Palmer said what she probably will remember the most about SAA is the people she met along the way. "It was apparent as we sat around eating pizza afterward the friendships I've gained," Palmer said, "getting to meet other people from other majors, and I'm definitely more confident now than when I first came to school.

I've been on a lot of different committees, and I've established my self-esteem a lot more, am more of a leader after being in SAA. It's been one of my favorite groups." County inmate uses glasses to cut arms Man had injured himself before while in custody By PHYLLIS J. ZORN HAYS DAILY NEWS A man whose self-inflicted injuries in jail a year ago resulted in a judge's order that he reimburse Ellis County for his medical bills once again has injured himself in jail. Thomas J. Reese 35, was taken by ambulance to Hays Medical Center Monday afternoon for treatment of deep cuts in his arms.

After he was sentenced Monday morning in Ellis County District Court, he was returned to his cell, where his new injuries occurred. "Yesterday after he got back from court, over the lunch hour, he broke his glasses and used a piece of glass to cut deeply into his arms and wrists," Ellis County Attorney Tom Drees said this morning. Asked who would be responsible for the payment of Reese's medical expenses this time, Drees said Reese would, assuming he has medical insurance. If he doesn't have medical insurance, the county would have to pay. Monday morning, Reese tional institution, making a criminal threat and two'counts of aggravated battery.

He was sentenced to 43 months for trafficking contraband and 16 months for criminal threat consecutive to each other and two 32-month sentences for aggravated battery, ordered to run concurrent to his other sentences. The 59 months in new sentences were ordered to run consecutive to 16 months for an earlier aggravated battery. Altogether, the new sentences and the old sentence will mean a little more than six years in prison for Reese, Drees noted. Two months ago, a judge ordered Reese to repay Ellis County $19,306 for medical expenses incurred when he was in jail a year ago after being arrested for the aggravated battery of his wife. That time, he spent six days in the hospital.

The county sued Reese in June under a law passed last year allowing counties to seek reimbursement of money spent on medical treatment. Reese contended his injuries were caused by being handcuffed too tightly, but jailers testified he'd slammed his head into the wall and cut his forearms himself. He later pleaded no contest to aggravated battery and was sentenced, to 18.months community That' sentence 'iyas U.T. ontM Monday Instead, he was giyen 16 months in prison, and his new sentence's tacked onto that. County health office runs out of flu shots By JEREMY SHAPIRO HAYS DAILY NEWS More flu vaccine has been ordered for the Ellis County Health Department.

An onslaught of people wanting flu shots Monday caused the health department to run out of the vaccine, said Butch Schlyer, county health administrator. He said 50 doses of the vaccine should arrive later this week. The health department was busy Monday morning, with lines winding out the door. Schlyer said they went through 80 doses in a couple of hours. Schlyer told the Ellis County Commission Monday people were panicked because of flu-related deaths in Colorado.

However, a school nurse told Schlyer Friday there doesn't seem to be any increase in the number of kids out with flu this year. "It's not anything out of the ordinary, but the potential for it is out there," he said. Schlyer said the flu strain going around is a variant of Type A. A flu shot provides some protection, but it does not provide full protection, he said. He said he ordered the extra doses.last week but was told they' couldn't be shipped to him until Monday.

Schlyer said today his office has given about 2,600 flu shots so far this fall. Nearly 2,800 people received free flu shots Nov. 1 courtesy of the Hays Medical Center Foundation. In other commission action Monday: Commissioners again tabled a decision to choose SBC or Nex- Tech as the county's long-distance provider in 2004. Both companies representatives made sales pitches Monday.

The representatives analyzed the county's bills in September and October and told commissioners what it would have cost if their company was the provider. In September, the county paid $627 to Birch Tele-Communications for long-distance calls, SBC said its bill would have been $430, while Nex-Tech said its bill would have been $444. In October, the county spent $733 with Birch. Nex-Tech's bill would have been $482, while SBC's bill would have been $503. SBC's bid calls for a rate of 5.6 cents a minute, while Nex-Tech's bid was for 6 cents a minute.

However, SBC requires a 30-second minimum for all calls. If an employee calls someone and gets an answering machine, then SBC would charge 2.8 cents versus about 1 cent for Nex-Tech. In October, there apparently were more short calls than September, said County Clerk Alberta Klaus, making SBC's billing comparison higher. Commissioners tabled the bid until next week so they could look closer at the financial data. Commissioners voted 2-1 to buy four pieces of equipment for the county public works department.

The county bought a 2004 dump body from Hays Mack-Henderson for $12,946 with a trade-in. Also from Hays Mack, the county purchased a 2004 belly dump for $25,558. The county purchased a 2004 dump truck for $57,881 and a 2004 truck-tractor for $68,300 from 1-70- Western Star, both of which included trade-ins. Western Star did not have the low bid on the truck-tractor, but commissioners agreed to spend the extra $5,000 because it was a local company and they've had good experiences with their equipment in the past. Commissioner Chris Channell voted against the purchases because the dump body specifications did not specifically list a certain size tarp.

The Hays Mack bid, with a 22-ounce mesh tarp, was $46 higher than the Hays Truck bid, with an 18-ounce mesh tarp. Mike public works administrator, recommended the Hays Mack bid because the extra $46 was worth the. heavier tarp. Channell said because the specifications referred to only "heavy duty the bids were not on an even playing field. In -total; the county spent $165,185 for the equipment.

The money will come out of the public works truck and highway equipment accounts. COUNTY SEE PAGE A6.