TEG
Friday, January 22, 2016
V V V
L a s t
PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING
P u s h
t o
FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1895
V V V
D o n a t e
United Way near fundraising goal
Good Evening
VVV
Congratulations
United Way of the
Flint Hills.
WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
USD 251
North Lyon County
to make
motion to
call bond
election
By Jessie Wagoner
[email protected]
tal will be announced during the
campaign celebration on Feb. 26.
Drive Chair Stuart Symmonds
said the campaign has gone really well.
“I am surprised with the generosity of everyone in the community and the support for the
United Way,” Symmonds said.
Executive Director Jami
The North Lyon County
Board of Education has an important decision to make on
Monday evening — they will
vote on a motion to call for another bond election.
The board originally called
a bond election in October of
2015, asking voters to approve
a $39 million bond to build a
consolidated kindergartenthrough-12th-grade building.
That bond was voted down by
a small margin.
Since that time, the board
has worked with the architects
and builders to trim the costs
of the building project and
have successfully reduced the
to $30.9 million.
“I thought we did a good
job of chopping,” Matt Horton,
board president said at the
board meeting held on Jan. 13.
“I really thought it worked well
to sit down with them and just
hammer it out and take a little
bit off here and there.”
The board has reduced the
Please see United Way, Page 3
Please see 251, Page 3
Courtesy Photo
Employees of the Medicine Shoppe present a check to the community in the amount of $5,181.80, which represents their support of this
year’s United Way campaign. As part of their workplace campaign, the Medicine Shoppe encourages employees to donate through payroll
deduction and participate in Jeans Day for the United Way. Customers were also invited to support the campaign by purchasing raffle
tickets for a Halloween-themed giveaway.
By Brandy Nance
[email protected]
The United Way of the Flint
Hills has seen one of the strongest campaigns in years, according to officials, with less
than $30,000 to raise before the
campaign celebration in midFebruary. As of Wednesday, the
campaign has raised $551,261 of
the $580,000 goal. The final to-
L y o n
C o u n t y
Lyon County Commission
Eight Lyon Country bridges to
discusses budgets and fireworks
undergo repairs in 2016
By John Robinson
[email protected]
Falling fuel and diesel prices helped the Lyon County
Highway Department finish
2015 under budget as the
Lyon County Commission
reviewed 2015 expenses at
the action session Thursday
morning.
Even with the savings,
County Engineer Chip Woods
had only one word to describe
the highway department’s accomplishment.
“Barely,” he said. “The decrease in diesel and fuel was a
big thing, that freed up more
money we could spend on
rocks.”
The highway department
budgeted $300,000 to spend
on gas, but only ended up
spending $140,092.86, while
the amount spent on diesel
was just over half of what
was expected, spending
$305,132.67 out of the budgeted $600,000.
With those savings, the
highway department went
over their initial budget of
$427,927 for rocks, spending
$567,430.03 in 2015.
“We have 1,300 miles of
gravel road,” Woods said. “So,
the more rock we own, the
more we can put down and
the better the roads are.”
The department distributed the largest amount of
crushed rock since 2011 with
69,035 tons laid through November of 2015.
Fireworks permits
The Lyon County Commission wants the Emporia
City Commission to change
the guidelines in their fireworks ordinance to match the
VOL. 124, NO. 174
John Robinson/Gazette
Chip Woods addresses the Lyon County Commission
about the Lyon County Highway Department’s 2015
budget. The highway department came in under the
budget in 2015.
county and state regulations.
Under county and state
rules, the sale and discharge
of Class C fireworks are allowed within Lyon County
between June 27 and July 5
from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., with
the exception of July 4 (10
a.m. to midnight).
According to Emporia City
Ordinance 15-13, Class C fireworks are consumer fireworks
which are authorized by the
Kansas State Fire Marshall
to be legally sold to consumers in the State of Kansas, not
to include “bottle rockets”
(rockets mounted on a wire
or stick), sparklers with wire
rods and unmanned aerial
luminaries, which are specifically excluded and remain
banned.
Fireworks sales inside the
city of Emporia have a tighter
deadline on the sale of Class
C fireworks, which can be
sold between June 29 and
July 2 from the hours of 10
a.m. to 10 p.m. and limited on
July 3 and 4, to 10 a.m.
through 11 p.m. in the
city limits.
According to the
county commissioners, the issue is vendors who set up in
the 3-mile metropolitan area
around Emporia and whether
those vendors would fall under city or county jurisdiction.
“(The city) isn’t sure if
they’re selling the permits or
if we’re selling the permits,”
said County Commissioner
Dan Slater. “This is stuff we
have to find out and get nailed
down in black and white.”
Slater said the county is
considering raising the price
of their permits to allow for
county-wide inspections but
said there is nothing concrete
yet and the conversation
would continue at the next
action session on Jan. 28.
“This is important for
vendors who want to sell
fireworks in this area,” Slater
said. “They need to know
where they can sell and what
they can buy because they’ll
be ordering their stock soon.”
Mark McArnarney, the
city manager for Emporia,
said he hopes to discuss the
issue at the next city-county
luncheon.
Kendra Johnson/Gazette
By John Robinson
[email protected]
Eight Lyon County bridges are currently cleared for
repairs a