TEG
THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2016
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PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING
2 0 1 6
G L A S S
FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1895
B L O W N
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Good Evening
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Watch for discs!
WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
O P E N
PALAFOX GETS DISCS BACK
WHERE THEY BELONG
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
Local Farmers Insurance Agent
Art Palafox devotes time each
week to retrieving lost discs from
ponds surrounding local disc golf
courses.
Much like the Farmers slogan,
“Farmers, gets you back where
you belong,” Palafox gets discs
back where they belong — to their
owners.
Palafox retrieves discs from the
ponds at Jones Park, the Emporia Country Club and the newest
course in Olpe. Last year he estimated he found about 300 discs,
which is about $4,000 in product.
Palafox makes efforts to return
as many discs to their owners as
possible. Overall, he said about 50
percent of the discs get returned.
However, if discs are unmarked
or the owners do not want them
anymore Palafox gives them to
children, uses them to promote
Dynamic Discs or resells them.
When the weather is good,
Palafox retrieves discs from the
water about three times a week.
He stresses the importance of players labeling the discs with a permanent marker. After the marker has
set on the disc for a month or so,
the ink will sink into the plastic,
making the mark permanent and
waterproof. Pen ink will wash off
when submerged in water.
Palafox got started by edging
the ponds. He noticed that when
he would look for his discs he never found his own, but often found
discs belonging to others.
Palafox has insured Dynamic
Discs through his business, Farmers Insurance, since both of the
businesses began in 2005. He likes
to know what products are found
in the pond and what is being
used more. Palafox said his personal rule is, when finding a disc,
he tries to contact the owner and
JOHN ROBINSON/GAZETTE
Nearly 1,200 disc golfers gathered at the Granada Theatre
Wednesday morning to check in for the Glass Blown Open.
DISC GOLFERS
ARRIVE
By John Robinson
[email protected]
CATHRYNE SCHARTON/GAZETTE
Dale Baker, of Emporia, looks through the discs in Art Palafox’s
trunk. Palafoxes sells and trades any unmarked or unwanted discs.
Below, Palafox has over 400 discs in the back of his car.
return the disc. For out-of-town
players, Palafox returns the discs,
charging only the return shipping
costs. Sometimes, people will pay
rewards for their found discs because they don’t want to go in the
water.
Palafox is an ex-Marine.
“I have been in that type of water when I was in the Phillipines,
so for me this is actually clean wa-
ter compared to where I used to
be,” said Palafox. “But for me it’s
more of a rush just finding these
discs because it’s history that you
are actually finding.”
Palafox has found many old,
vintage discs. One even belonged
to 2010 world champion and Emporian Eric McCabe.
Cool temperatures greeted
disc golfers lined around the
block as check-in began for the
Glass Blown Open Wednesday
morning at the Granada Theatre.
“On Wednesday the turnout
was 1,164 (golfers),” said Dixon
Jowers, operation specialist at
Dynamic Discs. “The first guy
was in line at 6:50 this morning,
we opened up at (9 a.m.) and by
the time we opened up there was
about 300 people or so in line.”
According to Jowers, the
check-in process was going
smoothly, with disc golfers receiving several gifts for participating in the tournament.
“Last year we had quite the
cluster on the handouts so we
worked on that this year,” he
said. “Kim (Redeker) over at The
Sweet Granada made chocolate
bars with the GBO logo on them,
they’ve got some polos, a couple
unreleased (discs), a jacket both
for the amateurs and the pros
... and the big thing is the commander bag ... with our stars and
stripes pattern.”
Montee and Zach Brunner,
checked in for their first Glass
Blown Open. The pair said the
process was not a problem.
“It was easy,” Montee Brunner
said. “Drink coffee, meet people,
get stuff and go. It’s not so bad.”
Up next for disc golfers are
the practice rounds followed by
Q&As from the owners of Dynamic Discs and professional disc
golfers and a player’s meeting.
“Because of the rain last night
the country club is shut down for
today so they can drain the water
and get it ready for play,” Jowers
said. “I hear the water out at Peter Pan (Park) is getting pretty
high at the river but we don’t
think it’s going to crest anymore.
Things are looking good. Our
main concern is making sure the
courses are ready to go.”
Please see Palafox, Page 5
JOHN ROBINSON/GAZETTE
Zach and Monte Brunner show off their check-in gifts for the
Glass Blown Open.
CITY
COMMISSION
HOLDS STUDY
SESSION
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
Wednesday morning city commissioners met to review water
usage and improvements, upcoming beer gardens, city employee
residency requirements and the
2017 budget.
Commissioners looked at historic and future projected water
usage data. The city is in need of
an additional water storage tank in
the event a current tank goes down
for maintenance but the new tank
will cost an estimated $8 million.
“We are just going to evaluate
that,” said Mark McAnarney, city
manager. “We always need storPlease see City, Page 3
NATIONAL WALK AT LUNCH DAY AT ESU
ESU unveils two
new campus trails
By Cathryne Scharton
USD 253 BOARD
OF EDUCATION
HEARS BOND
OPTIONS
[email protected]
By John Robinson
People gathered in Union
Square at Emporia State University
at noon Wednesday to
participate in National
Walk at Lunch Day.
More than 90 people came to the event,
sponsored by Blue
Cross Blue Shield of
Kansas. The company
provided free, lightblue T-shirts to the
walkers.
Allison Garrett,
ESU president, joined community
m