TEG
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
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Don’t be afraid to
reach out for help.
WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
Community
walk to
benefit
suicide
prevention
By John Robinson
[email protected]
Chase County School board
hears two facility proposals
By Jesse Murphy
[email protected]
The USD 284 Chase County
Board of Education heard two
separate proposals from Schmidt
Engineering Consultants during
their regular meeting last week.
The facilities committee that
was formed earlier this year after hiring Mike Schmidt, Warren
Ediger and Scott McKinley to
look into a cost-effective way to
update the district’s buildings.
Ediger presented the two options to the board during the
meeting.
Included were the high-end
updates and the low-end updates
to facilities, ranging in cost from
$14.6 to $16.1 million on the
high-end. Proposal two is $5.2 to
$6.2 million for the low-end.
These numbers are significantly lower than the $28.5 million bond proposal the board put
before voters in August 2015,
which was overwhelmingly rejected.
“One of the reasons why we
have a range like that is because
L y o n
we’ve not gone through enough
detail yet to make decisions that
affect the cost of the prospective
project,” Ediger said. “When we
go through to do the estimate,
we have contingents for costs
that will come up that we don’t
know about currently.”
At the high school, things that
the group looked at included a
new competition gymnasium
on the south side of the existing
building.
That would include taking
the classrooms and old auditorium off and coming back with
a new one that would double as
a storm shelter and have classrooms around it.
They also looked at making
the basement dressing rooms
into a wrestling practice room
and weight room. New dressing
rooms would be added to the
north end.
General renovations looked at
including doors, painting, lighting, floors and HVAC work.
At the elementary school in
Strong City, since the competition gym would be added to the
C o u n t y
Lighting and sound would also
be addressed.
All of the storm shelters would
meet FEMA requirements, and
any new construction would be
ADA compliant.
“There’s a trend towards not
wanting to use basement spaces for storm shelters,” Ediger
said. “There are concerns about
whether or not (a basement) is
an appropriate place to put a
storm shelter.
“Additionally, you have to
provide handicap accessibility
to it. You can’t rely on an elevator under storm conditions. That
means a ramp or some other
means, and that’s just not feasible (for the basement).”
The American Foundation
for Suicide Prevention is taking
steps to combat suicide and the
stigma surrounding mental illness as the organization hosts
the second annual Out of the
Darkness Campus Walk on April
2, at Emporia State University.
According to Melissa Kurtenbach, a member of the board
of directors for AFSP, money
raised in the walk will be used in
Kansas and 11 counties in Missouri to invest in new research,
create educational programs,
advocate for public policy, and
support survivors of suicide loss.
“In the state of Kansas we
lose 425 (individuals to suicide)
every year, that’s one person every 20 hours,” Kurtenbach said.
“It’s the 10th-leading (cause of
death) in the United States and
Kansas and it’s the second leading cause of death in college
aged students.”
According to AFSP’s website,
the organization set a goal of reducing the annual suicide rate
by 20 percent by the year 2025.
Kurtenbach also emphasized
raising money is not a requirement to participate in the walk,
but those who raise $100 will receive a T-shirt.
The one mile walk will start
at noon and Kurtenbach said
anyone can participate regardless of disabilities or handicaps.
“(The path) is fairly flat,”
Kurtenbach said. “We’ve already
Please see Proposal, Page 5
Please see Prevention, Page 5
Photos above: These aerial photos show the potential design plans by
architect Warren Ediger, Schmidt Engineering Consultants, and PKMR
Engineers. At both the high school in Cottonwood Falls and the elementary
school in Strong City, potential changes are reflected in these images with
markings. The USD 284 Board of Education heard both high- and lowend proposals from the consultants, and will hear another proposal in
the coming months that is somewhere in the middle of the two.
high school, this option would
have the old gym turned into
classroom space, and the stage
would be custodial and storage
space.
Both projects would include
making the front entrance to
each building more secure with a
vestibule for visitors to check in.
With the scaled-back version
of the high school, they looked at
renovation to the existing gym.
This would include taking out
the balconies that hang over the
playing area.
“They’re not being used now,”
Ediger said. “They’re basically a
blank area of the gym.”
Issues with HVAC and safe
exits would also be fixed for fire
protection and code compliance.
E m e r g e n c y
M a n a g e m e n t
Storm Spotter
Speaks
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
Tuesday evening Lyon County
Emergency Management hosted
a National Weather Service
Storm Spotter Talk at the Bowyer Community Building.
Meteorologist Chad Omitt
presented information regarding
severe weather safety.
The talk was in conjunction
with Kansas Severe Weather
Awareness Week, which is March
VOL. 124, NO. 220
14 through 18.
Members of the 77th Composite Squadron from Emporia were
in attendance to complete their
safety briefing for the month.
“I liked it real well,” said Cavin
Bazil emergency services officer
for the 77th Composite Squadron. “It was real informative and
the videos were great, a lot of
s