SALINE COUNTY — A Hutchinson man was among two injured in an accident just after 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Saline County.

A car driven by John Armstrong, 45, Hutchinson, was westbound on Magnolia Road according to Saline County Undersheriff Roger Soldan.

The driver failed to stop at the intersection and hit the back end of a car driven by 59-year-old Rex Cearley of Abilene, which was northbound on Kipp Road.

Armstrong and a passenger, Rodney Hayes, 48, Hillsboro, were transported to Salina Regional Medical Center.

Cearley was not injured.

Armstrong was cited for running the stop sign.

PRATT- The Pratt County Sheriff’s Office with the assistance of the Kansas State Fire Marshall’s Office concluded the investigation into the fatal fire that occurred south of Cullison the night of December 17.

The fire was caused by a charcoal grill, inside the trailer and a tremendous amount of stored newspapers and books inside the trailer, according to a media release.

The victim, Zane S. Baker, 68, died of smoke inhalation and thermal burns while in bed.

At approximately 8:30 p.m. on December 17, the Cullison Fire Department, Pratt County Emergency Services, and Pratt County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched 100223 SW 20th St., in Southwest Pratt County to the report of a residence on fire.

On arrival fire crews found the residence, a camper trailer, fully engulfed in flames. After the fire was extinguished, Baker’s body found in the ruble.

HUTCHINSON, Kan. (AP) — A pumpkin weighing in at 1,034 pounds has squashed the Kansas State Fair record.

The Wichita Eagle reports that Garden City’s Donovan Mader grew the monster in his abandoned horse pen. The pumpkin was 57.8 pounds heavier than the one that set the state record in 2007.

Long lines of gawkers have been viewing the pumpkin at the Kansas State Fair’s Pride of Kansas building. It’s Mader’s first ever entry in the giant pumpkin division, which has been previously dominated by pumpkin growing experts from Wichita and Liberal.

Mader went online looking for seeds. The classic truck restorer bought four or five at $25 each.

He says he got some help from an unusually wet summer in western Kansas. But Mader stresses there’s “a lot of luck involved.”

Kansas Historical Society

TOPEKA — At its regular quarterly meeting held at the Kansas Historical Society in Topeka on Saturday, Aug. 8, the Historic Sites Board of Review voted to forward seven nominations to the office of the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places in Washington to be evaluated by its professional staff. If staff members concur with the board’s findings, the properties will be included in the National Register.

The National Register of Historic Places is the country’s official list of historically significant properties.

Among the nominees is

Other nominees were: Martin Cemetery – US-50 Highway, St. John vicinity, Stafford County

The Martin Cemetery is nominated for its local significance in the areas of Exploration/Settlement and African American Ethnic Heritage. This small half-acre burial ground south of St. John in Ohio Township holds the remains of members of the Joseph Martin family. It is significant as the only known vestige of a unique group of African American settlers from Illinois. Their houses of worship are gone, and their descendants have moved away. The cemetery, however, remains as a reflection of their contributions to the history of Stafford County. The cemetery includes the graves of approximately 20 people, though only a few are marked.

 

Francis Byron (Barney) Kimble House – 720 Poyntz Avenue, Manhattan, Riley County

The nominated property was home to Barney Kimble and his wife, Mary Ann, from 1912 until Barney’s death in 1920. It is a two-story limestone, Queen Anne Free Classic style house with Colonial Revival influences. The form and layout also relate to the American Foursquare with a large hipped roof over the core of the house and smaller intersecting gables on all four sides. The nomination includes the main house and two limestone outbuildings (a stable and a barn), a grouping rarely found within the Manhattan city limits, particularly in an area that has seen growth and change throughout the 20th century. The Kimble House is nominated as part of the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century Residential Resources of Manhattan multiple property nomination for its local significance in the area of architecture as a vernacular interpretation of the later Queen Anne Free Classic style.

Papes Barn, 890 Ellis Avenue, rural Ellis.

The Papes Barn, constructed circa 1910, is nominated for its local significance in the area of agriculture as it relates to Ellis County’s early agricultural history and the family farm economy of the early 1900s.

The limestone barn also is nominated for its architectural significance as a vernacular gambrel-roof barn, which was specifically designed for hay storage essential to raising livestock. Czech immigrants Ignaz & Josephine Papes were part of a six-family settlement south of the town of Ellis in Smoky Hill Township.

Their barn is one of two surviving resources associated with early Czech settlement in the township. It is nominated as part of the Historic Agriculture-Related Resources of Kansas multiple property nomination.

Great Bend AAF Hangar – 9047 N 6th Street, Great Bend, Barton County
The Great Bend Army Air Field (AAF) hangar is directly associated with the federal government’s wartime aviation operations from 1939 to 1945. Constructed in 1942-1943, the concrete, wood, and metal squadron hangar was designed by the Army Corps of Engineers for the maintenance and modification of aircraft as part of a national defense strategy that placed air fields in south central and southwest Kansas. The well-preserved hangar is the oldest remaining resource from Great Bend’s World War II air field and is therefore nominated as part of the World War II-Era Aviation-Related Facilities of Kansas multiple property nomination for its statewide military significance.

Great Bend AAF Norden Bombsight Storage Vaults – 9047 N 6th Street, Great Bend, Barton County
The Great Bend Army Air Field Norden Bombsight Storage Vaults, built in 1943, are utilitarian concrete structures designed by the Army Corps of Engineers for the storage and issue of the Norden Bombsights during World War II. These vaults were constructed as part of a national defense strategy that placed air fields in south central and southwest Kansas. The structures are nominated as part of the World War II-Era Aviation-Related Facilities of Kansas multiple property nomination for its statewide military significance.

Fulton High School and Grade School – 408 W. Osage Street, Fulton, Bourbon County
The Fulton High School and Grade School is comprised of three buildings. Designed by Wichita architect Fred G. McCune, the 1917 Progressive Era school building is a two-story brick example of a Town Graded School, which was built during a period of standardization in the education system. In 1936 a gymnasium/auditorium was attached to the north side of the brick school. This gymnasium, constructed as part of a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project, contains salvaged limestone from the demolition of an 1882 school building at the same location. The third building at the site is a free-standing, one-story cafeteria constructed in 1964. The property functioned as a combined high school and grade school until 1966 when the high school consolidated with Fort Scott; the elementary school closed in 1978. The property is nominated as part of the Historic Public Schools of Kansas and New Deal-era Resources of Kansas multiple property nominations for its local significance in the areas of architecture and education.

 

Evangelical Lutheran School – 308 N. Indiana Street, Sylvan Grove, Lincoln County
The Evangelical Lutheran School is located on the east edge of Sylvan Grove, directly north of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church. The two-and-a-half-story building reflects the Prairie School style of architecture and is constructed of native limestone, a common building material in this area during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The school is associated with the early German Lutheran immigrants who settled in this area, following the efforts of Christ Kruse, a railroad man from Chicago known as a community builder and founder of Lutheran churches. The 1913 school, designed by Salina architect C.A Smith, replaced an earlier building at the same location. The parochial school operated every year except one between 1913 and 1981. At the start of the 1918-1919 school year, Lincoln County’s Council of Defense closed the Evangelical Lutheran School due to anti-German hysteria during World War I. The school is nominated for its local significance in the areas of architecture and social history.

Kansas State Department of Education

TOPEKA — Fifty-one Kansas schools and school districts will be honored during a special ceremony on May 7 at the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site for their work in character education, which focuses on students’ social, emotional and character development.

School representatives across Kansas will be recognized for their efforts to positively affect academic achievement, student behavior and school climate. The awards are given through the Kansas Schools of Character Recognition Program, sponsored by the Topeka City of Character, Character.org, the Kansas State Department of Education, and the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site.

Character education is an educational movement that supports the social, emotional and ethical development of students. It is the proactive effort by schools, districts, and communities to help students develop important core ethical (recognizing what’s right) and performance (doing what’s right) values such as caring, honesty, diligence, fairness, fortitude, responsibility, grit, creativity, critical thinking, and respect for self and others. Character education provides long-term solutions to moral, ethical, and academic issues that are of growing concern in our society and our schools. Through character education, students learn how to be their best selves and how to do their best work while making school a place where students and educators feel comfortable and able to work.

Kansas Character Development Initiative Coordinator Sue Kidd said the Kansas Standards for Social, Emotional and Character Development give structure to the process of character education.

“Kansas school leaders understand that building a culture that focuses on student success academically, ethically and socially is built by developing character as well as life skills needed for good citizenship, employability and leadership,” Kidd said. “The 2015 Kansas Schools of Character put that belief into action in a highly effective way.”

State and National Schools of Character serve as models and mentors, helping other educators transform their school cultures and improve academics and student behavior.

National School of Character
Circle High School, Towanda, USD 375
 
Kansas Schools of Character
Pittsburg High School, Pittsburg 250
Complete High School, Maize USD 266
McEachron Elementary School, Topeka, USD 501
 
Honorable Mention Kansas School of Character
Kiowa County Elementary and Jr. High School, Greensburg, USD 422

Spotlight Award for Social, Emotional, and Character Development Standards
Abilene High School, Abilene, USD 435
Amanda Arnold Elementary School, Manhattan-Ogden, USD 383
Andover Central Middle School, Andover, USD 385
Baldwin Jr. High School, Baldwin City, USD 348
Beloit Jr.-Sr. High School, Beloit, USD 273
Bonner Springs High School, Bonner Springs-Edwardsville, USD 204
Complete High School Maize, Maize, USD 266
David Brewer Elementary School, Leavenworth, USD 453
Douglass School District, Douglass, USD 396
Great Bend High School, Great Bend, USD 428
Hill City Grade School, Graham County, USD 281
Indian Valley Elementary School, Blue Valley, USD 229
Iola High School, Iola, USD 257
John F. Kennedy Elementary School, Kansas City, Kansas, USD 500
Liberty View Elementary School, Blue Valley, USD 229
Lincoln Elementary School, Augusta, USD 402
Lincoln Elementary School, Clay Center, USD 379
Logan Avenue Elementary School, Emporia, USD 253
McDermott Elementary School, Liberal, USD 480
Merriam Park Elementary School, Shawnee Mission, USD 512
Morgan Elementary School, Hutchinson, USD 308
New Chelsea Elementary School, Kansas City, Kansas, USD 500
Nickerson Elementary School, Hutchinson, USD 309
Neiman Elementary School, Shawnee Mission, USD 512
Plum Creek Elementary School, Buhler, USD 313
Sabetha High School, Prairie Hills, USD 113
Santa Fe Trail Elementary School, Shawnee Mission, USD 512
Thomas More Prep-Marian, Hays, Salina Diocese
Valley Center Middle School, Valley Center, USD 262
Village Elementary School, Emporia, USD 253
Whittier Elementary School, Winfield, USD 465
Winfield Middle School, Winfield, USD 465

Promising Practice in Character Education
Anderson County Jr./Sr. High School, Garnett, USD 365
Cimarron Elementary School, Cimarron-Ensign, USD 102
Complete High School Maize, Maize, USD 266
Cheney District Schools, Cheney, USD 268
David Brewer Elementary School, Leavenworth, USD 453
Hill City Grade School, Graham County, USD 281
Hoisington High School, Hoisington, USD 431
Hoisington Middle School, Hoisington, USD 431
Iola High School, Iola, USD 257
Lincoln Elementary School, Augusta, USD 402
Maize South Elementary School, Maize, USD 266
Thomas More Prep-Marian, Hays, KS
Valley Center Intermediate School, Valley Center, USD 262
Winfield Middle School, USD 465