TEG
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
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PULITZER PRIZE-WINNING
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FAMILY OWNED SINCE 1895
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Welcome, Lakin.
WWW.EMPORIAGAZETTE.COM
V V V
M
Good Evening
E
p r o p o s e d
b on d
USD 251 to
hold board
meeting
Thursday
New year
brings
new life
By Jessie Wagoner
[email protected]
A
bove, Tiffany Sharp
and Nathan Johnson
hold their daughter, Lakin
Renée Johnson on Monday.
Right, a gift basket was
given to the family by
the Newman Regional
Foundation and the
Auxiliary because their
daughter was the first baby
born in the hospital in
2016.
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
Tiffany Sharp and Nathan
Johnson welcomed their daughter, the first baby of the new year
in Emporia, born at 10:13 p.m.
Friday.
Sharp went in for a scheduled
stress test New Year’s Day when
the doctors decided to keep her
at the hospital. While Sharp
initially planned to have the
baby naturally, at 9:30 p.m. the
Kendra Johnson/Gazette
Please see Baby, Page 3
Fire remains under investigation
By Cathryne Scharton
[email protected]
A structure fire that was called
in during the early hours of Monday remains under investigation.
Mid-afternoon Monday, crews
were still working to put out hot
spots on the fire. The cause remains under investigation.
“We have been working on the
investigation on the fire. Right
now we haven’t released the
any information on the origin …
There was heavy damage to the
structure mainly in the center
part of the structure which was
not only the area of the basement
but the first floor which contained the kitchen and then an
upstairs room which contained a
bedroom hallway,” said Fire Marshal Reason Bradford.
Bradford anticipates the cause
to be released soon.
“Hopefully by the end of
(Monday) or first thing in the
morning we will have a hard
determination ... When we left
the scene there were a couple
firefighters still there. They
were just remaining on scene.
There were a couple areas they
were still working on, digging
some hotspots out. Because of
the large amount of damage and
a lot of contents … not only the
roof but the second floor into the
basement, it’s made it really hard
to get down into the basement
because of the soundness of the
structure,” said Bradford.
The fire marshal’s office is responsible for investigating the
origin of the fire. In addition to
Bradford there are two investigators on each shift. The investigators use a number of different
things to help them determine
the cause of the fire.
“A lot of times what we look
at is not only through interviews
but through looking at the different burn patterns on the structure and things of that nature,”
said Bradford.
Neighbor Duane Henrickson
noticed the emergency crews in
VOL. 124, NO. 159
USD 251 has scheduled a
special board meeting to discuss
the proposed bond project. The
board meeting will begin at 5
p.m. on Thursday at Northern
Heights High School. The board
meets in the library.
At the last board meeting
on Dec. 17, Universal Construction Company and Hollis & Miller Architects identified ways that the costs for
the building project could be
reduced without sacrificing
quality. The board also provided input on what options they
liked and didn’t like following
a tour of other schools. The
companies took the information provided by the board and
have now compiled a list of options that the board must now
narrow down.
The board will begin that process at the special meeting on
Thursday. The district will bring
another bond election before
voters soon. It is likely that election could occur in early May.
Other items on the agenda
include personnel matters and
an executive session regarding
personnel.
F l i n t H I L L S
TE C H C oll e g e
Technology
Program
prepares
grads
By Jessie Wagoner
[email protected]
Kendra Johnson/Gazette
A fire occurred at 2001 Morningside Drive early Monday morning.
the early hours of the morning.
“Well, it was probably between 3:45 and 4 (a.m.) when I
first noticed there was an activity going on. ... Our bedroom is
on the north side of our house
and the lights from the police
cars happened to wake me up,”
Henrickson said. “So I looked out
and I saw a police car there and I
saw one on down the street and I
thought ‘well something is going
on.’ ... shortly thereafter I heard
the firetrucks coming ... by the
time the fire engines got there it
was going pretty bad.”
Earlier reports indicated the
home owner, Ed Lipson and
Kendra Johnson/Gazette
wife, Patti, were out of town at
the time the fire occurred. Brad- The cause of a fire that destroyed the home at 2001 Morningside
ford confirmed Monday the Drive early Monday morning remains under investigation. No one
owners are back in Emporia.
was in the home at the time of the fire.
Flint Hills Technical College offers a number of different
programs to meet the needs of
students in the area — Network
Technology is one of those programs. Recently, Network Technology Instructors Adam Starr
and Kyle Sumpter provided the
FHTC Board with an update on
the program.
“The interesting thing about
computers is that almost everyone
uses them but very few people really understand them,” Starr said.
“We train our students to be computer experts.”
The instructors say that students completing the Network
Technology curriculum will develop professional skills that prepare
them for immediate employment
in the field of computer or IT (Information Technology) network
support and administration.
“Students will know how to install, configure and troubleshoot
computer networks’ unsung industry standard hardware and
software technologies,” Sumpter
said. “They are also prepared to
take certification exams in CompTIA, Linux Professional Institute,
Mic &