HUTCHINSON — The fate of a 140-year-old building in Hutchinson likely will be known by next week.
On Feb. 4, a portion of the former sugar mill collapsed. Since then, the limestone structure has been inspected and the cost to make any necessary repairs is more than the owner of the building can afford.
Since the Landmarks Commission can not make such a recommendation to raze the building, it falls on the hands of the Hutchinson City Council. The owners have been in contact with the city and the Landmarks Commission and the council is expected to take action on the building during its March 19.
The sugar mill was opened in 1881 but quickly closed. The building housed several other businesses over the years before closing for good in 1978.
CHENEY, Kan. — An Olathe man died during a cycling race at Cheney Reservoir over the weekend.
The Reno County sheriff’s department reports that 48-year-old William “Craig” Henwood was racing in the Rage Against the Chainring gravel bicycle race on Saturday. According to the report, Henwood started to drift left in front of a pack of riders when his bike left the road. He tumbled over the front of the handlebars and hit his head.
CPR was performed and Henwood responded to it for a short time, but was eventually pronounced dead at the scene. He was taken to the Wichita Forensics Center for more tests. It is not known at this time whether Henwood had a medical condition at the time of the accident.
The Rage Against the Chainring is a popular event that is part of a race series put on by the Kansas Cycling Association.
RENO COUNTY — An earthquake shook portions of Reno County early Monday.
Image courtesy Kansas Geological Survey
The quake just after 12:30a.m. measured a magnitude 2.8 and was centered approximately 2 miles southwest of South Hutchinson, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Monday’s quake follows a 2.8 magnitude quake in Harper County on March 7. There are no reports of damage or injuries from the Monday quake.
Before Dot Nary received her Ph.D. and began working at the University of Kansas as an assistant research professor at the Research and Training Center on Independent Living, she had been discriminated against while entering the workforce because she uses a wheelchair. Nary is currently researching ways to expand independent living for disabled people, and teaches others about disability in order to lessen the stigma.
“I went to a temp force company and I took the typing test and did fine,” Nary said. “I had a bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, but I didn’t get one call. I think they didn’t want to send out a person in a wheelchair.”
Although the Kansas Disabilities Act prohibits employers from discriminating against candidates with disabilities, the unemployment rates for these individuals remains higher than that of the average citizen. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that compared to an average of 4.2 percent, the unemployment rate for disabled individuals is about 9.2 percent. These numbers don’t account for disabled individuals who never enter the workforce.
According to the United States Census one in five Americans have a disability according to the broad definition of disability with only half having said that their disability is severe enough to interfere with their day-to-day life. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that means one in five will have a much harder time finding work. Nary says discrimination is largely due to the stigma of what it is like working with a person of disability.
Kansas’s House Bill 2044 is just one step toward bringing more disabled individuals into the workforce. Most recently Nary held a forum at KU in the Dole Center to talk about proper language when speaking to or about a disabled individual. She regularly holds similar equity talks that are open to the public to come and learn. She believes by educating and normalizing disabilities, the stigma will dissolve and society will begin to see disability as part of our everyday culture.
Nary, along with the director of the Disability Rights Center of Kansas, Stephanie West-Porter, wants to let the public know how capable these individuals are and how providing them with an employment opportunity can benefit companies. West-Porter discussed her own struggle with disclosing her mental disabilities WHAT ARE THEY? to coworkers.
According to West-Porter, invisible disabilities can be just as stigmatized and dangerous to finding a job if known. West-Porter defines invisible disabilities as mostly mental illnesses including anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and others.
Tax incentives from this bill would bring more disabled individuals into the work force and West-Porter believes that she sees it as a way to rid society of the discrimination that she and Nary have experienced.
West-Porter talked about a time that she did disclose her disability, saying “I actually had a coworker, after I told her I had bipolar disorder, said “You’re not going to come in with a gun and kill us all one day, are you?’”
This type of misinformation is a reason why finding employment remains tough.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires employers to provide reasonable accommodations for. Nary says that employers could be scared of this idea because it makes the person seem more difficult to work with but oftentimes, depending on the disability, accommodations aren’t hard to make. Sometimes, like Nary, only the office desk must be lowered for wheelchair access.
The Research and Training Center on Independent Living hopes to keep the conversation going and plans to hang up posters across KU’s campus indicating what a person should or shouldn’t say to a disabled individual. They hope alongside the new bill, that by lessening the stigma and starting a bigger conversation, people with disabilities will then be given further opportunities.
The House passed Bill 2044 with only one nay and sent it along to the Senate. After hearing the bill in the Committee on Commerce, the Senate passed the bill Feb. 27, with only one nay as well.
Samantha Gilstrap is a University of Kansas senior from Charlotte, North Carolina, majoring in journalism.
Severe Weather Awareness Week is a chance to review weather procedures for the spring storm season. This week, HutchPost.com will review various types of severe weather and how you can be safe if such weather approaches. We’ll cover a different topic each day to keep you informed.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — A lot of agencies work hard to keep you safe and informed during severe weather season.
The National Severe Storms Forecast Center in Norman, Oklahoma, will issue the watches across the country as well as in our area. The National Weather Service will issue any warnings for severe thunderstorms, tornadoes or flooding.
Although the NWS has radar, it also depends on spotters and emergency management offices to gather the information for public consumption.
Spotters are one of the most important components for covering severe weather because they are the eyes on the ground for the weather service, emergency management and even emergency agencies.
Scott Roberts is one of those storm spotters used by the Wichita National Weather Service Office. He also has his own website: ksstorm.info. He admits that a good part of his job is getting to the storm’s location.
He admits that, most of the time, it’s boring just getting to a location across south-central Kansas, but says there is a serious side too.
“The real reason I’m out there is to provide information to the National Weather Service, ground truth from underneath the storm,” Roberts said. “Unless there is somebody underneath that storm telling the weather service what they’re seeing, the weather service doesn’t know what’s happening between that radar beam and the ground.” He calls it ground truth.
Radar can indicate where possible rotation of winds, large hail and the intensity of the rains are located, but spotters are still needed to gather that ground truth.
When storms strike in Reno County, an Emergency Operations Center is opened.
Todd Strain, an emergency management specialist, says the center is opened to receive information. “We can receive reports here from our spotters out in the field and relay that information to the National Weather Service,” Strain said.
Strain also explained how that information is used locally. “If (the storm) gets large enough that we need to coordinate a response, say a particular part of the county has been hit, we already know about it and we can begin to send responders to that area to help mitigate whatever is happening.”
Hutch Post and Eagle Communications have radar to help warn you about approaching storms. Warnings pop up on the radar as they are issued, making it easy to get information online and on air quickly.
The best thing residents can do is pay attention to all watches and warnings. Storms can form quickly and strike your area. Have a plan for safety with your family, have an emergency kit including water and some non-perishable food. Have a battery operated radio or storm radio so you can stay informed about what’s happening.
Severe Weather Awareness Week is a chance to review weather procedures for the spring storm season. This week, HutchPost.com will review various types of severe weather and how you can be safe if such weather approaches. We’ll cover a different topic each day to keep you informed.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Most people know the destruction tornadoes can cause when they hit any given area. Tornadoes can destroy buildings, flip cars and create deadly flying debris.
Tornadoes are violently rotating columns of air that extend from a thunderstorm to the ground. Tornadoes can happen anytime, anywhere and bring winds as strong as 300 mph.
Tornado north of Hutchinson in 2015.
How does a tornado form?
Bob Smedbeck is the senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, he explains that when the seasons transition from winter to spring and even summer, the surface can be warm and humid at the surface, but cooler aloft.
With the warm air at the surface and colder air aloft, “that creates an unstable air mass and the bigger the difference, the faster the warm air rises. With the right amount of moisture and maybe a jet stream coming from the southwest, they can develop thunderstorms. Sometimes they can form into supercells where giant storms can sometimes drop large hail and a tornado,” Smedbeck said.
Tornado damage is assessed using the Enhanced Fajita Scale. Based on what damage is seen, that gives storm investigators indications on how strong the winds were during the storm.
The scale goes from F-0 to F-5. F-5 is the strongest with winds as high as 300 mph.
Smedbeck says tornadoes can strike anywhere and no one is immune. “Even an F-0 can be deadly,” Smedbeck said. He also expects this year to be much more active for severe storms with tornadoes.
What should you do to prepare for a possible tornado?
First, have a plan with your family for what to do if you should be in danger from one of these storms.
If a tornado warning is issued for the immediate area, you should find safety in a sturdy building, with a safe room, basement or storm cellar. If you are in a building with no basement, then get to a small interior room on the lowest level and stay away from windows, doors and outside walls.
If you are driving, do not get under an overpass or bridge. You are safer in a low, flat location.
Watch out for flying debris that can cause injury or death. Use your arms to protect your head and neck. Do not try to outrun a tornado in a vehicle.
You should also know the signs of a tornado, including a rotating, funnel-shaped cloud; an approaching cloud of debris; or a loud roar — similar to a freight train.
If you are in a car or outdoors and cannot get to a building, cover your head and neck with your arms and cover your body with a coat or blanket, if possible.
When a tornado watch is issued, you should monitor media and keep tabs on the weather. That gives you time to plan.
Use text messaging or social media to communicate with family and friends.
Be careful during clean-up. Wear thick-soled shoes, long pants and work gloves.
Severe Weather Awareness Week is a chance to review weather procedures for the spring storm season. This week, HutchPost.com will review various types of severe weather and how you can be safe if such weather approaches. We’ll cover a different topic each day to keep you informed.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Each year, more deaths occur because of flooding than any other hazard related to thunderstorms. The most common flood deaths occur when a vehicle is driven into hazardous flood water. Fortunately, you can take steps to protect yourself, your family and your home.
The first step to staying safe in a flood is to prepare ahead of time. Here are useful tips from the Centers for Disease Control.
During a Flood Watch or Warning:
Gather emergency supplies.
Listen to your local radio or television station for updates.
Have immunization records handy (or know the year of your last tetanus shot).
Store immunization records in a waterproof container.
If you are going to stay on your property:
Prepare an emergency food and water supply. Store at least one gallon of water per day for each person and each pet. Store at least a three-day supply.
Bring in outdoor possessions (lawn furniture, grills, trash cans) or tie them down securely.
If you are going to leave your property:
Turn off all utilities at the main power switch and close the main gas valve.
Leave areas subject to flooding: low spots, canyons, washes, etc. (Remember: avoid driving through flooded areas and standing water.)
After you return home, if you find that your home was flooded, practice safe cleaning.
After Flooding Occurs:
Avoid driving through flooded areas and standing water. As little as six inches of water can cause you to lose control of your vehicle.
Do not drink flood water, or use it to wash dishes, brush teeth, or wash/prepare food. Drink clean, safe water.
If you evacuated: return to your home only after local authorities have said it is safe to do so.
Listen to water advisory from local authorities to find out if your water is safe for drinking and bathing.
During a water advisory, use only bottled, boiled, or treated water for drinking, cooking, etc.
When in doubt, throw it out! Throw away any food and bottled water that comes/may have come into contact with flood water.
Prevent carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. Use generators at least 20 feet from any doors, windows, or vents. If you use a pressure washer, be sure to keep the engine outdoors and 20 feet from windows, doors, or vents as well.
The initial damage caused by a flood is not the only risk. Standing flood waters can also spread infectious diseases, bring chemical hazards and cause injuries.
After you return home, if you find that your home was flooded, practice safe cleaning. Remove and throw out drywall and insulation that was contaminated with flood water or sewage. Throw out items that cannot be washed and cleaned with a bleach solution: mattresses, pillows, carpeting, carpet padding and stuffed toys. Homeowners may want to temporarily store items outside of the home until insurance claims can be filed.
Walls, hard-surfaced floors and many other household surfaces should be cleaned with soap and water and disinfected with a solution of one cup of bleach to five gallons of water.
Severe Weather Awareness Week is a chance to review weather procedures for the spring storm season. This week, HutchPost.com will review various types of severe weather and how you can be safe if such weather approaches. We’ll cover a different topic each day to keep you informed.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Severe Weather Awareness Week is a time to look at two weather phenomena that are certainly a part of Kansas life — lightning and hail.
Here are some facts and figures about lightning:
• A single lightning bolt is about 50,000 degrees, or five times hotter than the surface of the sun.
• A lightning bolt is anywhere from 1,000,000 to 1,000,000,000 volts and between 10,000 and 200,000 amps, or about 215 kWh (kilowatt hours).
• There are two types of lightning: negative strikes and positive strikes. Positive strikes are five times more powerful than negative strikes and positive charge flows instead of negative.
• The average lightning bolt could light a 100 watt light bulb non-stop for about three months.
• The average lightning bolt is six miles long, although the Kennedy Space Center has indicated some as long as 75 miles. The thickness of a lightning bolt is about the size of a silver dollar. It only looks bigger because it is so bright.
• The US Department of Energy says the speed of lightning is 93,000 miles per second, although the light produced travels at the speed of light (186,282 miles per second).
If lightning is possible in your area, here are some safety tips:
When thunder roars, go indoors. Find a safe, enclosed shelter.
The main lightning safety guide is the 30-30 rule. After you see lightning, start counting to 30. If you hear thunder before you reach 30, go indoors. Suspend activities for at least 30 minutes after the last clap of thunder.
If no shelter is available, crouch low, with as little of your body touching the ground as possible. Lightning causes electric currents along the top of the ground that can be deadly over 100 feet away.
Stay away from concrete floors or walls. Lightning can travel through any metal wires or bars in concrete walls or flooring.
Although you should move into a non-concrete structure if possible, being indoors does not automatically protect you from lightning. In fact, about one-third of lightning-strike injuries occur indoors. Avoid water during a thunderstorm. Lightning can travel through plumbing.
Avoid electronic equipment of all types. Lightning can travel through electrical systems and radio and television reception systems. You should also avoid corded phones. However, cordless or cellular phones are safe to use during a storm.
Lightning strikes may be rare, but they still happen and the risk of serious injury or death is severe. Take thunderstorms seriously. While hail is more associated with causing damage to cars and crops, it is still dangerous to human health.
Stay away from windows if indoors. If you are caught outdoors, substantial structures and highway overpasses offer the best hail protection. An awning, a gas station overhang, or even an unexposed side of a building can also offer protection.
While a vehicle can offer some protection, large hail can still be dangerous. If in a car, pull off the road — preferably under a bridge. Vehicles offer good protection from hail up to about golf ball size, but significant windshield and body damage can result with hail larger than golf balls. Carry a blanket in your car to protect you from shattered windshields.
Learn and follow these safety rules to keep yourself safe from lightning and hail.
Severe Weather Awareness Week is a chance to review weather procedures for the spring storm season. This week, HutchPost.com will review various types of severe weather and how you can be safe if such weather approaches. We’ll cover a different topic each day to keep you informed.
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — With severe weather season approaching, it’s important to identify the difference between tornado and severe thunderstorm watches and warnings.
A WATCH means the potential exists for the development of severe thunderstorms or tornadoes, depending upon the specific type of watch issued. In the case of a tornado watch, this does not mean a tornado has been seen or even indicated on radar — simply that conditions are favorable for the formation of tornadoes in thunderstorms. A tornado watch usually covers a large area and is a good opportunity to go over severe weather plans such as securing lawn furniture and other outdoor objects. It’s also a good idea to know where friends or family will be during that period.
Similarly, a severe thunderstorm watch means conditions are conducive for the development of severe weather, and does not indicate severe weather has been reported. While no immediate action on the part of the general public is required after the issuance of a watch, residents should keep up to date on the current weather situation and be prepared to seek shelter if necessary.
A WARNING, on the other hand, requires more immediate action and should be taken seriously. A severe thunderstorm warning indicates that severe weather is imminent in your area or is already occurring. The term severe refers to hail greater than or equal to an inch in diameter or wind gusts that meet or exceed 58 mph. Although these storms can also be associated with dangerous cloud-to-ground lightning or heavy rainfall that is capable of causing flash flooding, neither of these two items serve as criteria for a severe thunderstorm warning being issued.
A tornado warning can be thought of as a very specific severe thunderstorm warning, and means a tornado has been either spotted by a human observer or indicated by radar. Similar to a severe thunderstorm warning, once a tornado warning is issued for your area, take cover immediately as the likelihood being directly impacted by a tornado is at a heightened risk.
The Eagle Media Center is equipped with radar that shows us just where such activity is occurring. It can alert us to hail, high winds and flooding potential. It also gives us more precise types of tornado warnings in that it will indicate three levels of a warning. The standard tornado warning when a storm is indicated by radar, a tornado warning when an actual tornado has been spotted on the ground and an tornado emergency, which is an indication the storm may be causing damage. It helps us track the weather faster so we can give you immediate updates through all of our media sources.
With this knowledge of watches and warnings, you will be better prepared the next time severe weather threatens your area.
A Hutchinson water tower near SW Bricktown Park. Residents near the park renamed their neighborhood SW Bricktown when they were one of the city’s “featured neighborhoods” targeted for community improvement and engagement.
By MADELINE FOX Kansas News Service
Hutchinson building official Trent Maxwell recalls the city, years back, inspecting the home of a woman whose gas had been shut off for nearly a year.
“She was using one burner on the electric stove to heat water to bathe her little kids,” he said.
The woman finally got fed up and called city officials. She’d held off, she said, because her landlord threatened to land her in jail if she summoned inspectors. That wasn’t true. But she believed the threat.
“No one,” Maxwell said, “should have to live like that.”
Those kinds of situations, as well as a run of house fires, prompted Hutchinson city officials to pass a rental inspection program in 2015. Every rental in the city limits would have to be registered, and city inspectors would go through every rental property once every three years.
But landlords said the city overstepped, infringing on tenants’ right to privacy and holding landlords to a higher standard than homeowners.
Mary Marrow, an attorney at the Public Health Law Center, said it’s not a privacy issue.
“This is a business,” she said of housing rentals. “We have standards about what (are) acceptable living conditions.”
In 2016, though, the Kansas Legislature sided with landlords.
A law signed that year protected landlords from mandatory inspections of the inside of their rentals. It also blocked what’s commonly called “inclusionary zoning,” where a certain percentage of new development is set aside for below-market-rate housing.
“That pretty much cut us off at the knees,” said Steve Dechant, a Hutchinson city council member and landlord who supported the regulations.
Steve Dechant, a landlord and member of the Hutchinson City Council, gestures to properties in his neighborhood. Dechant supported a 2015 policy that required interior inspections of all of the rental properties in the city. (Photos by Madeline Fox, Kansas News Service)
For the state law’s supporters, though, Hutchinson still has the necessary tools to keep its tenants safe. The city’s still been inspecting rentals, but only from the outside. If inspectors want to get inside, they still can, with a warrant or written permission from the tenant.
Maxwell said the benefit of the law, though, is that landlords couldn’t blame their tenants if inspectors came sniffing around.
“It gave kind of a neutral way for the unit to be inspected,” Maxwell said. “The tenant was not going to be at fault.”
Tenants who call in a code violation are legally protected from retaliation by their landlords, said Luke Bell, who represented the Kansas Association of Realtors during the bill’s passage in 2016.
“These inspections are arguably being done in favor of the tenant,” he said. “So if the tenant doesn’t want the inspection, should they be forced to agree to it?”
Marrow, the attorney, said that overstates the city’s control. City inspectors give landlords a heads-up before coming over, and the landlords notify their tenants — they’re not knocking down doors with no warning.
“(Inspection policies are) about protection of renters,” said Marrow, “who, first of all, might not know that there’s a safety violation there, and may not be in a position to do anything about it if there is.”
Still, officials in some Kansas cities say even tenants who know there’s a problem, and that they’re protected from landlord retaliation, might be hesitant to summon inspectors. That could trigger condemnations, which means evictions, which means a rush to find another place for a similar price.
The inspections may have felt like government overreach to some. To others, restricting inspections and price controls at the state level feels like Topeka policymakers stepping on cities’ ability to work out what makes the most sense in their area.
“It’s good to have more tools, rather than less, to deal with whatever problems come up,” said Andrea Boyack, a law professor at Washburn University.
Boyack favors the inspection restrictions in the 2016 state law, which she said protects tenants’ privacy. But she objects to the part of the bill that stops local officials from insisting that developers include affordable units in their housing developments.
Kansas hasn’t seen skyrocketing rents in the same way as some other places, like the burgeoning tech hubs of San Francisco and Seattle. As housing there became more in-demand, and at least some people could pay sizable rents, the market moved with them. Landlords charged what the market could bear.
In Reno County, home to Hutchinson, a minimum-wage worker would have to put in 62 hours a week to make a one-bedroom at fair market rent. That presumes they’re working regular hours every week, but many entry-level jobs have irregular hours.
That puts Reno County’s rental costs below the state as a whole, where workers have to earn $11.20 per hour to afford a one-bedroom apartment. Again, that assumes a full workweek every week, with no unpaid days off. Kansas’ two-bedroom average rent outstrips all its neighbors except Colorado, where Denver-area prices and ski resort towns drive up prices.
Blocking price controls leaves cities without a powerful, if often controversial, tool to make sure housing costs fall in line with earning power.
“You’re taking those tools off the table for local governments,” Boyack said.
But Bell said mandating that, for example, 30 percent of units rent at cheaper rates just means the cost gets passed on to everyone else.
“That developer or that apartment complex owner, they’re going to have to make that up somewhere,” he said. “All it does is it raises the cost of housing for the other 70 percent to control the cost of housing for the 30 percent.”
He said developers might also just avoid projects entirely if building for below-market rents makes it harder for them to recoup investments. Landlords, too, might shy away from renting out properties if they’re subjected to regular mandatory inspections.
When cities can’t force developers to build affordable housing, nonprofits step in. In Reno County, home to Hutchinson, Interfaith Housing and Community Services is trying to connect renters to the safe, good-quality housing it rents out for less than 30 percent of a client’s income.
“We absolutely don’t lack for applicants in any of our programs,” said Clint Nelson, director of housing development at Interfaith.
Interfaith also has a program to give homeowners money for repairs and upgrading. The city has zero-interest loans for home repairs in some of its “featured neighborhoods” — often struggling areas where the recreation and planning departments are working with residents to build community pride and fix up common spaces.
Amy Allison, Hutchinson’s senior city planner, said the loan program and other city-sponsored home-improvement are geared more toward owner-occupied homes now. They may expand that to rentals.
Hutchinson officials are mostly trying to figure out how to grapple with the city’s aging housing and the possible risks it could provide to residents who struggle to find affordable places to live. They’re also trying to not run afoul of the 2016 restrictions passed by the state legislature.
The city’s scaled-back three-year inspection program sunsets this December. After that, the city council will have to decide if it wants to continue mandatory exterior inspections, or even take a crack at getting back into all the rentals’ interiors in a way that doesn’t run afoul of the 2016 state law.
“The goal of the program to begin with,” said Maxwell, “was to find those properties that are just unsafe — that no one should be living in — and if they’re too not feasible to fix, we should take them off the market.”
Madeline Fox is a reporter for the Kansas News Service. You can reach her on Twitter @maddycfox.
HUTCHINSON — The fate of a 140-year-old building in Hutchinson likely will be known by next week.
