Friday
Ark City
November 17, 2017
www.acdailybytes.com
Cowley County Public Health Officer Langer addresses Chilocco testing By JENI McGEE jeni@acdailybytes.com
may penetrate single-family and multi-family structures.” The study will measure the CHILOCCO — A recent anamount of material that pennouncement from the U.S. etrates the buildings under Department of Homeland Secu- various conditions. rity (DHS) has caused an uproar At the tail end of the publiin the communities surroundcation, there is an address to ing the former Chilocco Indian which comments about the School. planned study can be sent: The announcement, made last S&T CBD Mail Stop 0201 week, was sent as a legal pubMurray Lane SW lication to The Newkirk Herald Washington, DC 20528-0201 Journal. This publication announced Langer tries to allay concerns the availability of a draft EnThe concerns that have been vironmental Assessment for voiced by local residents have performing a collaborative been mirrored in reports by scientific study. various media entities. The publication specifies Citizens in Arkansas City and that the study will include Newkirk are rallying against “low-level outdoor release of the testing. Ark City resident inert chemical and biological Jill Wineinger started a petition stimulant materials at the Chi- after seeing the initial report of locco (former) Indian School the testing. Campus.” The petition had more than It goes on to state that there 6,000 signatures as of Wedneswill be two such releases, one day afternoon. in February 2018 and one later In addition, those opposed to that summer. the testing gathered Sunday at While the publication does the gates of Chilocco to protest. not specify the materials to be However, one local official is used, it does give reasons for speaking out against any public the testing. alarm. “The purpose of this study is “It truthfully is not nefarito gather data that enhances ous,” said City-Cowley County our predictive capabilities in Health Department Administrathe event of a biological agent tor Tom Langer. attack,” the DHS announce“I see people anxious or worment states. “Specifically, this rying, (but) I don’t want them work will help in predicting the to fear. If there was something extent to which an intentional nefarious, I would be the one release of a biological agent standing on the courthouse
steps, screaming at the top of my lungs.” Langer, who also serves as the county’s public health officer, has been urging citizens to take a step back and understand why the test is occurring. “If we were to define ‘risk,’ if I were to step outside and smoke one cigarette today, I would be at greater risk to harm that this test will prove to be,” Langer said. “I’d be in greater risk getting in my car and racing to Winfield and back to Ark City today. “I went back and looked at the headlines, and I could see that there was lot of salacious language used.” Langer’s background Langer has been employed at the city-county health department since August 2015. Prior to that, he spent 10 years working with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. During six of those years, Langer served as state director of environmental health. There is all manner of testing and monitoring in Kansas for environmental hazards, according to Langer. This includes testing similar in design to the planned testing at Chilocco. “We do a lot of emergency planning based on the data Story continues on Page 6 →
Letters urge Cowley College trustees to fill vacant seat with Bergagnini By JENI McGEE jeni@acdailybytes.com Ark City Daily Bytes received two letters from citizens this week concerning the vacancy on the Cowley College Board of Trustees. This seat has been vacant since former trustee Sid Regnier resigned March 13 with more than two years left in his term. More than 240 days have passed since his resignation, but the seat still has not been filled. The letters received this week address how to fill the seat in light of the Nov. 7 election results. Both urge the college trustees to select Michael Bergagnini to fill the position, since he was the highest vote-getter among the trustee candidates who were not elected.
Bergagnini received 1,115 votes in the election, finishing fifth after former county commissioner Gary Wilson. Process to fill seat In August, Cowley College President Dennis Rittle released the following statement regarding the vacated seat: “Currently, the (Cowley College) Board of Trustees has not decided on a specific course of action related to filling the vacant seat, which was held by former trustee Mr. Sid Regnier. “The trustees plan to wait until after the general election in November before making a decision on this matter.” The board is obligated by state law to publish a notice in a newspaper that has
general circulation within the community college district, stating that the vacancy has occurred. Following that publication, the trustees cannot appoint anyone to the seat until 15 days have elapsed. “The statute does not specify how soon after vacancy the publication must take place, nor does the statute set forth a time frame in which the vacancy must be filled,” said Cowley County Attorney Larry Schwartz. Bergagnini throws name in hat The first letter Daily Bytes received was from Bergagnini himself. “It is far beyond the time where the board should have filled the position vacated by Sid Regnier last March,” he said in his email.
“I believe that I would be a good trustee, and over 1,000 of the Cowley citizens casting a vote agreed.” In the letter, which is addressed to the board and board secretary Tiffany Vollmer, he outlines his qualifications to be a board member, which include his work experience and his longstanding mayorship of Parkerfield. “I would like to apply for consideration in filling the Board vacancy created by the Sid Regnier resignation,” Bergagnini writes. “To my understanding, this position is still vacant and is to be filled by Board appointment. I also understand that, to date, no applications for this position have been received.”
Planning Commission approves first step toward Compass Point By ANDREW LAWSON City of Arkansas City The Arkansas City Planning Commission voted 4-0 on Tuesday night to approve a preliminary plat of Compass Point Addition, a new housing subdivision in northwest Ark City. If the project moves forward, it could result in 54 new homes, targeted to moderateincome families, being constructed west of MeadowWalk Apartments and south of Skyline Road on about 11 acres of land. The commissioners approved the plat after a public hearing — during which no opposition was heard — that included a
question-and-answer session with Kirk Miller, an engineer for Compass Point LLC. The public hearing was held in the commission room at City Hall. This was the first step in a process that will unfold over several future meetings of both the City Commission and Planning Commission. The next step will be to finalize the plat, possibly in December, after feedback from the city’s Technical Advisory Committee is taken into account by the developer. Special assessments to reimburse the city for utility improvements will have to go before the City Commission.
The final steps that will have to occur are for roughly half of the addition to be voluntarily annexed into the City and rezoned as R-2 (Medium-Density Residential District), pending a land sale from Ark City Industries to Compass Point LLC. These also will have to be approved by the City Commission. This announcement caused a few chuckles for some commissioners, since they had decided in late 2015 to rezone the north half of the property from R-1 (Low-Density Residential District) to C-2 (Restricted Commercial District) to allow self-storage units — a project that never materialized.
Ark City Daily Bytes will not publish a print edition Friday, November 24, 2017, so that our employees have a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families. However, we will publish content throughout the week on our website, www.acdailybytes.com. Please look for our next print edition on Friday, December 1, at your favorite distribution location.
4 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 30, 2017 Visit these chamber businesses and see visiting artists’ work: Alderbrook Village, 402 E. Windsor Road Angels in the Attic, 109 S. Summit St. Arkansas City Public Library, 120 E. Fifth Ave. Bee’Tween Friends, 206 S. Summit St. Burford Theatre, 118 S. Summit St. Cherokee Strip Land Rush Museum, 31639 U.S.77 Cowley College Brown Center, 201 S. Second St.
Graves Drug Store, 212 S. Summit St. McDonald’s Sewing & Vacuum, 222 S. Summit St. MidAmerican Credit Union, 1601 N. Summit St. Orscheln Farm & Home, 2715 N. Summit St. Quality Water Services, 3122 N. Summit St. Reedy Ford, 3319 N. Summit St. The Red Door, 2121 N. Summit St.
Transformations, 207 S. Summit St.
Brought to you, in part, by these sponsors:
Hutchinson family continues to grow through adoption, fostering By JENI McGEE jeni@acdailybytes.com Dereck and Erika Hutchinson will celebrate National Adoption Day by putting into practice what they preach. The couple will adopt a little girl named Bethany on Saturday. The Hutchinsons met while attending church in their teens, but didn’t connect until a mission trip to Mexico. “We met in high school, but didn’t know each other until we went to church together while I was at Cowley (College),” said Erika Hutchinson. “We went on a Mexico mission trip as sponsors and ended up getting to know each other better.” After a few months, they started dating. “The following June, we got married. We were both 20,” she said.
Hutchinson adoption history The Hutchinsons are no strangers to adoption — their first two children also were adopted. “Through adoption, God has knit our family together in a unique way that has far exceeded any expectations we could ever have had,” said Erika Hutchinson. “Our adopted kids and our foster kids are beautiful, amazing children who bring so much laughter, love and joy to our life.” The family currently has two adopted daughters, with a third adoption set to take place Saturday, plus two foster children. “Once we started fostering our two daughters, one thing led to another and they ended up being available for adoption, so we adopted these two beautiful little girls after a year of fostering them,” Hutchinson said.
The girls — Jasmine, 10, and Jessie, 8 — have been with the Hutchinsons for seven years. “We will definitely consider adopting (our current foster children) if reintegration does not occur,” she said. Filling a need for God “Adoption is important to us for many reasons,” said Erika Hutchinson. “The first reason is, as Christ followers, we are called to care for the orphans and widows in their distress.” Both Dereck and Erica Hutchinson went into social service jobs and saw a huge need for foster families. “(We saw the importance of) someone being willing to get attached or hurt for the sake of a child who needs a safe place to be,” she said, “a place that will bring healing and hope to them.”
Christmas in the City Event Lineup 5 businesses each week will host a life-sized Elf for customers to take a selfie with and then post publicly on Facebook, tagging the Arkansas City Area Chamber of Commerce and name of the business. Each business you take a photo at and tag gives you a chance to win $350 in Chamber Bucks! Nov. 20-26: Graves Drug Store, Orscheln Farm & Home, Alderbrook Village, Angels in the Attic and Schmidt Jewelers. Nov. 27-Dec. 1: Farm Bureau Financial Services — Jill Hunter, Land Rush Antique Mall, Arkansas City Public Library, Union State Bank and Cricket Wireless. Dec. 4-8: Transformations, Bulldog Tire, Reedy Ford, Ike’s Donut and Burger Junkie. Dec. 11-15: McDonald’s Sewi Sewing and Vacuum, 102.5 The River, Quality Water, Ark City Police Department and Riverstone Family Dental.
Support local businesses by shopping locally. Carriage rides from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sponsored by:Jet AirWerks & Creekstone Farms
1 cent per vote at participating Chamber members. People’s choice will be announced at noon Dec. 15. All proceeds go to benefit the “Blessing Boxes.”
Participating businesses include: Alderbrook Village, Angels in the Attic, Ark City Arts, Ark City Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau, Burger Junkie, Cox Communications, Farm Bureau—Jill Hunter, Graves Drug, Ike’s Donuts, Land Rush Antique Mall, McDonald’s Sewing and Vacuum, MidAmerican Credit Union, Orscheln Farm & Home, Riverstone Family Dental, Schmidt Jewelers, Taylor Drug, Transformations, and Union State Bank.
Letter to the Editor from Dick Schneider: Appoint Michael Bergagnini
T
he votes are in, the citizens of Cowley County have spoken and now it is time for the Cowley College Board of Trustees to act. We re-elected three incumbents — Ned Graham, Bob Juden and Brian Sanderholm — to the board, and added to their number former county commissioner Gary Wilson. Additionally, Sumner County elected its first-ever trustee, Glennis Zimmerman, to a two-year term. Add in JoLynn Foster and Jill Long, who each have two years left in their terms, and you have seven trustees. But wait! With the addition of Sumner County’s trustee, the board has been expanded to eight people. So who is the eighth trustee? Well, this is where it gets a little complicated. It turns out this last seat has been vacant since March, when former trustee Sid Regnier resigned due to health issues. About a month later, Cowley College President Dennis Rittle said the trustees did not have immediate plans to replace Regnier. Perhaps this was because
the board already had been ordered to attend mandatory training on the Kansas Open Meetings Act due to a violation that occurred the last time there was a board vacancy. Yes, I applaud the Cowley College Board of Trustees for taking more time to contemplate a replacement for Regnier than they did for Jim Ramirez. However, there is such a thing as too much contemplation. At the time of this writing (Nov. 15), Regnier’s seat has been vacant for 240 days. That’s two-thirds of this entire year! How did this come to be? Cities are required by K.S.A. 14-1305 to fill these vacancies within a defined period of time. But school boards and community college boards of trustees do not appear to have any such
requirement. All the college is required to do is to publish a legal notice of the vacancy and then wait at least 15 days to fill it. After delaying for a couple of months, the trustees finally announced through Dr. Rittle that they would not make up their minds about a replacement for Regnier — or even officially advertise the vacancy, thus triggering the 15-day countdown — until after the Nov. 7 election. The only logical reason to do this, in my opinion, is that the trustees wanted to see who came in fifth in the voting. There is no other defensible reason to have waited almost eight months. The election was a week ago. Those results will never be more relevant or useful than they are now. Now is the time for
the trustees to act! My good friend, Michael Bergagnini, received 1,115 votes in the Nov. 7 election. Mike is the obvious, most legitimate and — frankly — the only candidate the Cowley College Board of Trustees should consider to replace Sid Regnier for the remaining two years of his term. I call upon the college trustees to appoint Mike Bergagnini to the vacancy no later than their Dec. 18 meeting so he can take office in January with the rest of the newly elected trustees. I further call upon my fellow Cowley County citizens to write similar letters and make their opinions on this issue known to the trustees. Editor’s note: For more of this letter and sources, visit http://bit. ly/2jwKiA0.
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collected,” Langer said. The testing that has been outlined in the release from DHS will be used to prepare for potential attacks using biological weapons. “You can’t release the known biological weapon,” he said. “Instead, the government simulates the testing using substances that are harmless.” ‘Well-constructed design’ Langer called the impending DHS test program a “wellconstructed evaluation. I think it is a very well-constructed design.” “I went to the Department of Homeland Security’s website and read (the documents outlining the testing),” he added. “I read it through the eyes of someone who has been involved in environmental testing. “In reality, 1.3 pounds of a
material will be used. Imagine a bowl full of baking flour, from 6 to 9 feet in the air, being dispersed (within the Chilocco school grounds).” “To reach us, there would have to be a 200 mile-an-hour wind,” Langer said of any substance released in Chilocco during the proposed testing. “This isn’t a bad thing. It isn’t going to put anyone in Cowley County at risk. The results will be very, very helpful to us should something happen in Cowley County (in the future).” Two of the materials named in the documents are titanium dioxide and urea. “They are using these materials because they are completely inert materials. Urea is something that is in our bodies anyway,” Langer said of the chemical, which occurs in urine. He also said the testing use of titanium dioxide is due to its stable nature.
“It doesn’t dissolve,” he said. “It can be accounted for.” The third material is an inactive form of a bacterium that occurs naturally and is essentially harmless. It has been modified to fluoresce so its dispersal can be better tracked. Chilocco testing parameters The point of the DHS study is to find out how well protected Americans are in man-made structures during an attack involving biological weapons. “The Department of Homeland Security found a site that really perfectly fits. They can design this test to mimic the results of an attack on (communities such as ours),” Langer said. “The test will really be to find out how much a substance, which closely mimics a known biological weapon, affects these structures.”